Alliance has changed, not people’s faith : Mahato

“The only way I will lose some votes is if people presume that I still belong to the earlier Trinamool-Congress coalition,” Mahato, who had won the 2011 elections as a candidate of the TMC-Congress alliance, added.

[related-post]

This year, Mahato is a candidate of the Congress-CPM alliance. “Our earlier alliance with CPM was not an intimate one. It was a very weak alliance. This alliance with CPM is a much stronger one,” says Mahato.

Asked whether voters will feel betrayed by his change in position, he said, “It is not as if they are unaware of the misdeeds of Trinamool leaders. There is television everywhere now, and they all have read about the corruption in the party,” says Mahato.

“Even the rehabilitated Maoists will vote for us. They don’t side with TMC. The government has done nothing for them, only given jobs to some leaders, but virtually nothing for the foot soldiers,” he added.

Mahato’s election campaign focussed on “debunking myths about Mamata Banerjee’s Rs 2-a-kilo rice scheme”. “People need to know that this is a central government scheme. She keeps shouting about it, but people are not stupid. The tribals here have connections with neighbouring villages in Jharkhand, where the government gives rice at Rs 1 a kilo,” he said.

If elected, Mahato said he would work on providing proper drinking water and a scientific way of irrigation for farmers in the area.