Bhowanipur showdown: Didi vs Adhikari turns Kolkata’s heartland into battleground

New Delhi: Business is slow at two in the afternoon at Jadubabur Bazaar. In a week's time, even at this time of day created for shop-shuttering siesta, this area in central Kolkata will be hopping with frenetic activity as the city comes out to vote in the second phase of elections.

But right now, outside the Naba Mahamaya Ashram Hotel-'hotel' used loosely in the Bengali sense of an eating establishment-a man is silently praying for an unnaturally long time. His petition seems targeted at a hibiscus-garlanded stone figure of Bajrang Bali. Or, is his prayer directed at the Ma Kali figure next to it? Or the smaller figurines of Ganesh, Siddhi Sai Baba, and Baba Loknath? Political analysts can make much of his choice.

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For Kolkata's voters on April 29, this area will indeed throw up choice. There's the very Javed Miandad-looking Congress candidate Pradip Prasad looking down affably from some posters. CPI(M)'s 'Young advocate' Shrijeeb Biswas is also on the vegetating menu. But let's face it-this is 159 Bhowanipur Vidhan Sabha, and there will be only one real contest next Wednesday: Didi vs Adhikari.

Prior to 2021, Suvendu Adhikari was Mamata Banerjee's right-hand man, the flint in her agitational arrows of Nandigram and Singur that would drive the Left (and Tata Motors) out and bring about 'poriborton'. After Adhikari crossed over to BJP, and challenged and defeated the chief minister in Adhikari's 'home turf' of Nandigram in the last elections, he has been one of the few politically homegrown hits for BJP. This time again, he's up against Didi-here in Bhowanipur.

Some have seen Adhikari bringing himself to Battleground Bhowanipur itself as a rousing opening shot. BJP hopes to bring what he brought to Nandigram here in the heart of Kolkata. One of the billboards with his Didi-defying face reads: 'Nandigram dekhechhe itihash, ebar Bhowanipurer paala' (Nandigram has seen history, now it's Bhowanipur's turn).

Non-Bengali, Bengali

Autos, shanghaied and turned into mobile campaign vans, are lined up all along Chakraberia Road with Adhikari and Modi looking out rather sternly with the message, 'Bhoy noy, bhorsha' (not fear, assurance). Next to a BJP campaign office, yet another Kolkata highrise is under construction. The billboard hanging along the front shows the future swanky address of 7/1 Chakraberia Road (South), Bhowanipur. On the side of the building facing a BJP office, there are a couple of Mamata posters. They are both in Gujarati.

Bhowanipur is an especially cosmopolitan part of Kolkata, with a sizeable population of middle-class Gujaratis and Sikhs, along with Bengalis. The shopfront of Shyam Sundar Chandiwala-'The sign of purity'-displays a large Ram-Sita-Lakshman-Hanuman silver carving fit for a temple room in posher Alipur or Ballygunge.

The lane itself is festooned with triangulated flags with the image of a chubby-faced Ram standing with the Ayodhya mandir in the background, and the words in Bengali, 'Joy Shree Ram' on them.

Mamata Banerjee-campaign posters-wise--holds her ground along Behari Doctor Road, where old, grungy mansions with pillars and balconies with names like Maan Manzil, Mitra's Residency, and Sarat Villa overlook a row of shanties. At a small sari shop in the nearby Deshbandhu Market, Kolkata's seemingly only man in a hurry quickly tells his friendly neighbourhood shopowner, 'They're going to get 200-plus this time. I'm not getting into an argument with you anymore on this. I'm past 44,' and he rushes off with a cloth bag in hand after deciding a very good future for the ruling party.

Interestingly, he's headed towards Ashutosh Memorial Institute next door, residence of the father of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of BJP's parent party, Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

Kalighat Central

One Metro station and a 10 minute walk away from Bhowanipur is Kalighat, coincidentally where Kolkata's two most famous residents-Ma Kali and Mamata Banerjee-live, almost cheek by jowl. Security at the lane to the latter's residence is heavy before election days. From the lassi shop across the street, one can count some seven police personnel, two women included.

They all seem to be in a merry picnic-ing mood. And why not. They are surrounded by top-notch Kalighat mithai shops, not to mention an HFC outlet - '#India Ka Fried Chicken'.

What is most impressive, though, is the barrier at the mouth of Harish Chatterjee Street leading to the chief minister's residence. It's shiny, foldable, and formidable. But walk around and enter a parallel street, and after crossing half-finished clay statues-one of goddess Sithala on her donkey with a tarpaulin backdrop seems to be holding a relatively hard-to-find CPI(M) flag-you come to the back gate of 30B Harish Chatterjee Street, Didi's residence.

There's not much of any security here, with two police personnel chatting away. It's a small passage into the CM's residential compound. But what you shouldn't miss is the small building next to this back entry-home to Kalyani Natya Mandir. Here, they teach 'dress, make-up, sets and light.' What could be more electoral than that?