BASIRHAT: Tucked away in North 24 Parganas along the southern banks of Ichhamati river is Basirhat that falls on one side of the Radcliffe Line that divided India and Pakistan (now Bangladesh). One has just to cross the river to reach Khulna in Bangladesh.
Basirhat’s location explains why this place witnessed large-scale migration since Partition with people engaged in a bitter struggle for survival.Additionally, the money-spinning bheris (artificial ponds for fishing) here have always made this zone politically volatile.
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But not anymore. The Lok Sabha seat is now a solid Trinamool stronghold that has party MLAs in all the seven assembly segments — Baduria, Haroa, Minakhan, Sandeshkhali, Basirhat Dakshin, Basirhat Uttar and Hingalganj. Nirapada Sardar was the last Left MLA from the area in 2011.
Yet, amid this deep-rooted Trinamool presence, Basirhat threw up surprises in 2014 when BJP’s Shamik Bhattacharya won the Basirhat Dakshin assembly bypoll though the seat went to Trinamool later. The BJP in the changed scenario has presence in Basirhat Dakshin, Sandeshkhali and Hingalganj.
Basirhat Lok Sabha figures over a 10-year period (2009 to 2019) reflect the changing political loyalties. The 40.4% Left vote share in 2009 declined drastically to 4.8% in 2019 while Trinamool and BJP improved their shares mostly at the expense of the Left slide. The Trinamool vote share went up from 46.2% in 2009 to 54.9% in 2019 while BJP improved from 6.6% in 2009 to 30.3% in 2019.
Basirhat was considered one of Trinamool’s bastions in south Bengal, till the recent groundswell in Sandeshkhali that hit national headlines. Sections of women came out of their homes chasing local Trinamool leaders in the area and openly complained against party strongman Sheikh Shahjahan for grabbing their farmlands and sexually abusing them.
The complaints of women from an assembly segment reached Calcutta HC, making citizens sit up and take notice.
A few days later, video clips of a BJP organiser that went viral on social media picked holes in the “sexual torture” narrative, though not the land-grab accusations. Subsequently, a woman BJP officebearer from North 24 Parganas crossed over to Trinamool and claimed that the Sandeshkhali affair was a “conspiracy,” by Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
With accusations flying from both sides, it remains to be seen which version Sandeshkhali voters believe when polling takes place for the Basirhat seat on June 1.
BJP, in a bid to set sail on the groundswell, nominated one of the agitators Rekha Patra, a homemaker, as the Basirhat candidate. PM Modi followed it up by talking to Patra over the phone, asking her about her election preparations.
Trinamool, on the other hand, relies on an old hand, Haji Nurul Islam, a twotime Haroa MLA, with an eye on the Muslim voters who constitute around 54% of the population in the Lok Sabha constituency. “Some BJP and CPM leaders had deliberately tried to instigate innocent people in Sandeshkhali to spread violence. But we will build a new Sandeshkhali, with a renewed focus on development. We believe all the common people of Basirhat are with us,” Nurul said.
According to local sources, Shahjahan and his gang took control of 40,000 bighas in the Sandeshkhali region, most of which were farmland taken over on lease and forcibly converted into bheris by flooding with saline water.
“These bheri lands, which are leased out for Rs 10,000-15,000 per bigha, make the place a multi-crore lucrative business hub and a major supplier to the Kolkata market. By earning huge sums from the money-spinning ponds, Shahjahan and his associates built a formidable network in the Sandeshkhali area. They also offered money to hundreds of local unemployed youths for expanding their empire and widening their market,” a local farmer said.
BJP candidate Patra, despite stiff opposition from Trinamool, is focused on Sandeshkhali. “I will fight the oppression and violence against women in the area till the end. The people of Basirhat are with me, supporting me because I am like their daughter, a girl from their family,” Patra said.
CPM candidate Nirapada Sardar is also banking on the Sandeshkhali groundswell to get back the section of Left and Congress supporters in Basirhat who had voted for either BJP or Trinamool in the last few elections. “Trinamool didn’t allow elections in Sandeshkhali after the party came to office in 2011. People in Sandeshkhali and beyond in Basirhat, want peace. They want their farmlands back,” Sardar said.
Basirhat, no doubt, is a prestige fight for Trinamool this time to “bust” the BJP “conspiracy” in Sandeshkhali. Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee announced the other day that the party would win from Basirhat by a record margin of 4 lakh votes, surpassing the 3.5 lakh winning margin of Trinamool candidate and Bengali film actor Nusrat Jahan in 2019.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, on the other hand, has made Sandeshkhali the centre of the party’s campaign. The saffron party is determined to gain a lead in the Sandeshkhali segment to claim a moral victory, even if it trails in some other assembly segments of the Basirhat constituency.