Candidates take cricket, blood donation, shopping routes on day 1 of campaigning
Times of India | 18 March 2024
KOLKATA/HOOGHLY: Lok Sabha election candidates in the city took blood donation, cricket and shopping routes to kick off their campaigns on the first Sunday after the announcement of election dates.
Trinamool Congress's Kolkata South candidate Mala Roy led the way attending three back-to-back blood donation camps at Lake Gardens, Bhowanipore and New Ballygunge Road in Kasba.
"During summer, there is always a scarcity of blood and hence my appeal to all clubs would be to engage in more blood donation activities as political parties wouldn't be able to do this this time because of the model code of conduct. There is no better deed than donation of blood and hence, I chose to be part of the campaigns and offered my best wishes to the donors as well as organisers," said Roy while attending a camp at Sangita Cultural Association in Lake Gardens.
Her party colleague and Dum Dum candidate Sougata Ray too was out from early in the morning and attended three blood donations camps at Kamarhati and also stopped by to play cricket with local youths of Baranagar at two places.
"There is no better way to reach out to people than be with them in their noble deeds and to me, donating blood is the noblest of all deeds as a blood donated by a Hindu can save the life of a Muslim who may be receiving it. This is one deed that erases all forms of separatist propaganda," said Ray, who also attended a TMC workers' meet at Panihati and was at the 'shradh' of a family member of one of the workers there.
TMC's Jadavpur candidate Saayoni Ghosh began her campaign by shopping vegetables from Azadgarh market near her home since 8am before reaching Bhangar, Baligada and Sonarpur north to attend workers' meets and door-to-door campaigns.
"Since the start of the campaigns my father has been doing all the morning grocery shopping. I thought of buying some veggies and dropping them home by myself on the sidelines of the campaign," said Ghosh, while shopping at the market.
Her competitors in the constituency - Left Front's Srijan Bhattacharya and BJP's Anirban Ganguly - too were out on the road criss-crossing the constituency with multiple outreach programmes.
Bhattacharya walked in a long procession from Sonarpur to Baikunthpur and Baruipur to Shivani Mahal interacting with voters. "What the people's face is saying, media survey doesn't match with them," Bhattacharya posted on his Facebook profile while taking a dig at opinion polls.
BJP's Ganguly joined the party workers in writing wall graffiti at multiple neighbourhoods in Sonarpur south before participating in a young workers' meet at Baruipur. "Party workers are our major strength and hence, I started the day interacting with them and painting wall graffiti with them. Later, I interacted with the people of my constituency too," said Ganguly.
Left Front's Kolkata South candidate Saira Shah Halim also started the day early by campaigning at markets in Kasba and visiting neighbourhoods at Golpark. She distributed party leaflets by herself. "Even being in the heart of the city, there are multiple places in this constituency which lack basic hygiene and sanitization. I have been visiting all these places and reminding people why they need to vote for us," Halim told reporters.
Trinamool's Hooghly candidate and Tolly star Rachana Banerjee began an early morning campaign with a visit to Simlagarh Kali temple in Pandua before she went to Balagarh to attend a party workers' meet.
"I am in awe with the reception from the people. I am asking everyone not to vote for me as Didi No 1 but for the real Didi - chief minister Mamata Banerjee - who has chosen me as her representative," said Banerjee.