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At Kanthi, it’s a prestige fight between Adhikari family and Mamata Banerjee
For the BJP, which set a record in Bengal in 2019 by winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats, winning Kanthi is crucial for meeting this year’s target of 30 seats
Kolkata: During the 34-year-long Marxist regime in West Bengal, which lasted till 2011, voters at the Kanthi Lok Sabha seat in East Midnapore district swam against the Left tide to keep the Trinamool Congress (TMC) flag high in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, a year after Mamata Banerjee formed the party, quitting Congress.
Nitish Sengupta, India’s former revenue secretary and Planning Commission member, wrested the Kanthi seat from Communist Party of India (Marxist) four-time MP Sudhir Giri. TMC lost the seat to CPI(M) in 2004, but the 2009 elections completely changed the scenario.
Sisir Adhikari, a former Congress leader who had joined the TMC, emerged as a winner in 2009 and retains the seat till now although he has switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without resigning from Parliament, just like Dibyendu, one of his four sons, who holds the adjacent Tamluk Lok Sabha seat.
Also Read: LS polls: In Bengal’s Tamluk, it’s a battle between an ex-HC judge and a poet
82-two-year-old Adhikari’s eldest son, Suvendu Adhikari, joined the BJP in 2020 and defeated Banerjee in the Nandigram assembly seat in 2021. Banerjee challenged the results in court and faced a by-poll in Kolkata to continue as chief minister.
Formed in 1951, Kanthi, also called Contai, is one of the nation’s oldest Lok Sabha seats. It has around 1.7 million voters, with Hindus comprising more than 70% of the local population, of which around 15% is the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. For the BJP, which set a record in Bengal in 2019 by winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats, winning Kanthi is crucial for meeting this year’s target of 30 seats.
On May 25, when Kanthi goes to polls alongside seven other seats in the south Bengal region, Adhikari’s youngest son, Soumendu, will be facing TMC’s Uttam Banik, the legislator from Patashpur, one of the three assembly seats the ruling party won in 2021 in the Kanthi Lok Sabha segment. The remaining four – Kanthi North, Kanthi South, Bhagabanpur and Khejuri, went to the BJP.
“After the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Shanti Kunja, the residence of the Adhikaris at Kanthi town, virtually became a power centre in East Midnapore. Politics in this region went into the control of Sisir Babu and three of his sons,” said Rampada Samanta, a local businessman.
“We were not surprised when Sisir Babu stepped aside and the BJP fielded Soumendu from Kanthi while Dibyendu let former high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay contest from Tamluk on a BJP ticket. Both seats go to polls on May 25. For the Adhikari family, this is a prestige fight,” Samanta added.
During discussions on the family’s clout, locals frequently cite the Kanthi town municipality as an example.
Sisir was its chairman for around 20 years (even when he was in Congress) before stepping down in 2005. Suvendu held the post from 2006 to 2010. Soumendu succeeded him and controlled the civic body till 2020.
After the TMC regained control over the municipality in the 2020 state civic body elections, Subal Manna, the new chairman, lodged a police complaint alleging a scam in the allotment of stalls to shopkeepers at a site earmarked for a modern crematorium.
The Adhikaris called it a conspiracy and moved the court. The case is still pending. Another police complaint, accusing Suvendu of misappropriating flood relief materials from the municipality, is also being probed.
Ever since campaigning started, the chief minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary, have referred to the Adhikaris as “gaddars” (traitors) at every rally.
Also Read: More Mamata harasses Suvendu, higher position BJP would give him, says Amit Shah
Mamata led a colourful roadshow at Kanthi town on May 16. “Suvendu is driven by high aspirations that can never be fulfilled, at least not in Bengal. The duration of his career is limited. The entire East Midnapore district, where freedom fighters ran an independent national government for two years during the Quit India Movement, will give a befitting reply on May 25,” TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said.
On May 22, when Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a rally at Kanthi, Sisir and his sons were present on the dais.
Referring to a raid the local police conducted a day before at one of the election offices of Suvendu, Shah said, “You cannot scare the BJP Mamata Didi. Stop misusing the police or else the one or two seats that people might have thought of giving you will slip through your fingers.”
Asked whether he is confident of winning, Soumendu said, “Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s presence can be felt across Kanthi. TMC poses no challenge but it may try to create unrest. We hope the Election Commission deploys central paramilitary forces in adequate numbers.”
