Bombing only the beginning, fear locals

KOLKATA: With only nine days to go for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, fear is the key word in the lanes and bylanes of Garden Reach. Tension has gripped the residents of Bichalighat, Ramnagar, Mudiali Road, Dewanbagan, Fatepur Road, Haji Raisuddin Lane and Masjidtala Lane — spanning four wards in Garden Reach — since bombs were hurled on a campaign rally of Begum Mumtaz Ali, the Congress candidate of ward 133, on Tuesday.
The incident has snowballed into a major controversy with the Trinamool Congress and Congress engaged in a game of allegations and counter-allegations. A visit to Garden Reach by a TOI team on Wednesday revealed an eerie calm before the storm in an area where large-scale violence is the norm before every election. With Trinamool not being able to wipe out Congress dominance in some wards, keen contest is predicted in the April 18 KMC polls.
Locals feel Tuesday’s bombs at Mudiali Road is only a warm-up match between Congress strongman Mohammed Mokhtar and Trinamool heavyweight Samshuzzaman Ansari, who is also an MMiC in the outgoing KMC board. Ironically, they are neighbours as well as relatives — Mokhtar’s daughter is married to Ansari’s son. But when it comes to politics, none is willing to leave an inch to the other.
And this is what has kept locals on tenterhooks. “Going by long-term trend, all we can say is that the polls won’t be a peaceful affair in our area. We are just keeping our fingers crossed,” said Javed Akhtar, a trader at Mudiali Road.
TOI on Wednesday caught both leaders surrounded by their respective party activists, planning for the ‘big day’. While Mokhtar blamed Ansari for using the government machinery and police to restrict his movement and make the civic polls a farce on poll day, Ansari alleged that it’s Mokhtar who plans to create widespread disturbance.
Mokhtar did not rule out violence on poll day when, he alleged, the ruling party has planned to “loot booths” in the Congress-dominated areas. He alleged that his appeals to the administration to provide him with security have fallen on deaf ears.
Ansari termed his claims as “drama”. “He himself is a cause for concern for the locals. How can he get threats?” Ansari said.
Bijoli Sen, the CPM candidate from the ward, however, felt that both were “dangerous”. Sen — a prominent leader of her party’s women’s wing and wife of Dilip Sen, once an influential leader of Port area — is hopeful that people would vote for the Left because they are fed up of extortion by Trinamool.
However, Ansari, who is viewed as a ‘daata’ (donor) in the area seems to be the frontrunner this polls.