Ram Mandir, Jinnah, Adani missing in Bengal as poll issues

With the third phase of polling ending, the election here has ignored most of the issues hogging the limelight nationally and the fight is more over what matters locally.

- JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY

Down the National Highway 12 from Adhir Chowdhury’s citadel in Behrampore to Kolkata winding through Krishnanagar, famous for its sweetmeats and more recently its firebrand MP Mahua Moitra, controversially disqualified last year from Parliament, and thence on through the mango orchard flatlands of Plassey, where Nawab Siraj ud-Dowlah fought his last battle against Robert Clive, the posters, wall writing and the conversation at cha-shops were all about either local ‘durniti’ (corruption) or chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Tuesday’s Supreme Court judgement staying the earlier Calcutta High court order sacking some 25,000 teachers from government schools, because 5,000 or so of them were found to have used unfair means to get the jobs, the allegations of molestation against Governor C V Ananda Bose made by a woman employee of the Raj Bhavan, Sandeshkhali, were among hot topics at tea shops in the early hours of the day in rain-washed hamlets over piping hot cha served in earthen cups.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his accusations that the Congress manifesto reflected Jinnah’s thinking, the Ram temple at Ayodhya, Adani and Ambani, were missing from the conversation here, east of the Hindi heartland.

A BJP slogan on a village wall accusing TMC said: “Koyla kheli, goru kheli, kheli nadir bali, bou meyeder bad Dilina, bolche Sandeshkhali (Coal scam, Cow smuggling, sand mining and now women at risk are all your fault, says Sandeshkhali)”. A rival poster by TMC spoke about the benefits of a popular scheme ‘Lakshmir bhandar’ (Lakshmi’s income) which put money in the accounts of women householders.