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Buddha practises what he preaches
Practise what you preach. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is doing just that in his constituency. For quite some time, Bhattacharjee has been cautioning his comrades about the highhanded attitude towards people. Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri reports.
Practise what you preach. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is doing just that in his constituency. For quite some time, Bhattacharjee has been cautioning his comrades about the highhanded attitude towards people. Probably, with the intention of breaking with the past, former mayor and suave soft-spoken lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya was roped in as his election agent after the death of his predecessor Pranab Sen in August 2009.
The word doing the rounds in the party is that Sen’s most trusted lieutenant, Khokon Ghosh Dastidar, was the strongest candidate but his claims were turned down following allegations of highhandedness.
It is believed that Ghosh Dastidar’s wife and the sitting CPI(M) legislator from Falta in South 24-Parganas, Chandana Ghosh Dastidar, was denied a ticket for similar reasons.
However, since the constituency is Jadavpur and Khokon Ghosh Dastidar, being a veteran organiser in the area, the party could not dump him. He is now in charge of the chief minister’s campaign programme in Jadavpur. This is despite Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya’s claims that “elements with track record of highhanded attitude and interference in civil society are being kept out of the chief minister’s campaign process”.
However, when contacted, the former mayor told HT, “Khokon Ghosh Dastidar is an able organiser and extremely popular among the voters. He has always been associated with the campaigning process and this time is no exception.”
There is yet another reason behind the CPI(M) roping in the former mayor as the chief minister’s election agent instead of Khokon Ghosh Dastidar.
A senior state committee leader of CPI(M) pointed out that although the latter has more proficiency as a party organiser in Jadavpur constituency, the former mayor’s legal competence is more necessary in this election, especially when the Trinamool Congress chief has fielded former state chief secretary, Manish Gupta.
“Remember Gupta served as chief secretary during the chief ministerial tenures of both Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. This man is capable of digging up any old non-issue just to gain political mileage. To counter that we need a legal brain such as Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya,” the state committee leader said.
At the same time, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya can also ensure that the chief minister does not violate the strict guidelines set by the Election Commission.
