Haldia verdict : Don't need new Lakshman
Haldia elected Lakshman Seth's wife but defeated someone who many feared would become his "worthy successor".
The biggest surprise of this round of civic elections is the inability ofTrinamul strongman Subhendu Adhikari to deliver the knockout punch on Lakshman, the toppled CPM satrap.
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This is not the ending that Subhendu, Trinamul's MP from Tamluk and the president of the party's youth wing, had envisaged as he piled one humiliation after another on the CPM since Nandigram erupted in 2008. Subhendu is part of the Adhikari political family whose presence is larger than that of Trinamul itself in East Midnapore. "Adhikari's attitude reminded us of Seth's dictatorial ways in his heyday. The people of Haldia did not want another Seth and it got reflected in the polls," said an industrialist who runs a business in petro-products in Haldia.
The Telegraph had reported last September how several industrialists had complained that the supporters of Subhendu were controlling the supply of manpower and materials to industrial units.
Two names that cropped up more than once then ' Azizur Rehman and Milon Mandal ' were among the losers in the civic elections. Subhendu as well as Rehman and Mandal had then denied any link to such activities and described the complaints as baseless.
The poll results reflect the depth of discontent in the factory belt: Trinamul has lost seven out of nine wards that comprise the industrial zone with units like Haldia Petrochemicals, Mitsubishi, Exide and Indian Oil.
In the 26-ward municipality as a whole, Trinamul, which had won six seats along with alliance partner Congress in 2007, has bagged 11 this time ' four less than the Assembly poll leads in the same wards.
Compared with the result in 2007, Trinamul has now gained in vote share. From 39.56 per cent that it got along with ally Congress, the share has gone up to 46.33 per cent.
But the failure in securing the civic board from the beleaguered Left stands out as a sore thumb in an otherwise unchallenged run by Trinamul.
"The victory in Haldia has come as a surprise to us… We had a tough time finding suitable candidates in all the wards as the organisational strength in our East Midnapore unit has depleted drastically in the past one year," said a CPM central committee member.
The lack of organisational might was evident in the run-up to the elections. The CPM could not organise big rallies in the absence of leaders like Lakshman and Amiya Sahoo, the district secretariat member who has also been arrested. The party's campaign ' led by Tamalika ' was low-key with focus on door-to-door initiatives and small meetings.
"I thank the people of Haldia for standing by us and rejecting those who had created an atmosphere of terror here," Tamalika, who was overwhelmed by the victory, told ABP Ananda after the results were announced.
Tamalika is likely to retain her post, which will allow her to control the Haldia Development Authority (HDA) as well. Together, the two agencies have a combined annual budget of over Rs 100 crore.
Although Subhendu has never held any post in the party's district hierarchy, he has been running the show in Haldia since the Nandigram protests broke out and the Left lost the zilla parishad in 2008.
"His (Subhendu's) main aim, however, was to run the show at the municipality and HDA…. In preparation, he became the president in almost all the Trinamul-held labour unions and inducted his men as working presidents to control the key decisions in those units," said a businessman.
According to him, Subhendu was following the same model that Lakshman had fine-tuned as he rose from an ordinary party worker to the most influential leader in Haldia.
The slide of the CPM in Haldia ' and also in other parts of East Midnapore ' was linked to the politics of Lakshman, who had become a law unto himself.
The verdict showed the people of Haldia had rejected the same brand of politics, which Subhendu was accused of trying to champion."People of Haldia have disapproved Trinamul's high-handed approach and the results clearly reflect that," said Om Prakash Mishra, PCC general secretary.
The defeat is more likely to be attributed to Subhendu than Trinamul as, unlike in other places in Bengal, Haldia has not been under the direct control of Mamata Banerjee.
Some Trinamul insiders said Adhikari had a free run in Haldia as he had promised Mamata to take the civic board from CPM. During a public spat between Seuli Saha, the Trinamul MLA from Haldia, and Subhendu over nomination of candidates for the civic polls, the party backed the young MP and gave preference to his list of nominees.
"There are at least three wards where Seuli's candidates were replaced with those of Subhendu, and the party lost in all three of them. Internal feud cost us dear in Haldia.… Had we presented a united face, the results could have been different," said a party leader.
Subhendu conceded that internal differences ' which became public when Seuli held a media conference and spoke out against the MP ' did affect his party's fortunes in the civic polls.
"Public statements by some leaders have adversely hit our fortunes…. I didn't discuss it before and neither will I do it now," Adhikari said at a public rally in Haldia late this evening, where he said he wanted to resign as the president of the Trinamul Youth Congress.
"A lot of people had said that this election was my fight against the CPM and I admit it. But let me assure all of you that I will give a fitting reply in the panchayat polls," he said.
On the other hand, the Congress's Shankar Singh has "bounced back'' with the Cooper's Camp municipal election that has put 11 of the 12 wards into the Congress kitty. Singh's "achievement'', said a PCC leader, is all the more striking as the Congress had to face opposition from Trinamul. Here, the Left couldn't even hold on to the lone seat it had got in 2007.
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