CM’s para voters set clock at 3.15 pm for date with Didi
Times of India | 1 June 2024
Kolkata: At Harish Chatterjee Street and its adjacent Kalighat Road, most of the residents are setting the clock timer at 3.15pm on Saturday – the time when their celebrated neighbour and Kolkata South’s voter no. 1 Mamata Banerjee would leave her home to cast her vote at Mitra Institution on Harish Mukherjee Road.
“Didi usually comes to vote between 3.15pm and 3.45pm and that is the time I intend to go and cast my vote.It gives us an opportunity to come closer to Didi and she often responds to our requests by clicking photos with her. How can I miss such an opportunity?” said Binita Pal, a Kalighat Road resident and a neighbour of the chief minister.
Bustling with multiple shops selling tea, cigarettes and biscuits, an array of clustered garages, mixed constructions of modern shanties and two-three storeyed residential buildings, the neighbourhood is better known as ‘Didi-r para’, where the chief minister stays in a one-storeyed home on the banks of the Tolly Nallah for more than 50 years.
While residents rue that it has become difficult to reach out to the CM because of the increased police presence along the lanes and bylanes leading to Banerjee’s home and strict frisking outside her residence, times like voting gives them the opportunity to get closer to her.
“I have known her since she was a little girl and she acknowledges me everytime she sees me. Even on Wednesday, she waved at me after finishing her speech at a meeting near Kalighat gate. I have seen her rise from a fighting woman to the leader of the state. I feel proud voting with her and that is why I time my voting period accordingly,” said Chandan Saha. Saha had rushed to SSKM Hospital when Banerjee had suffered a head injury at home, a day before the election dates were announced. The way she emerged out of the injury and paced her 76-day campaign, topping it up with a 12-km walk, has stunned many of her neighbours and staunch supporters
Everyday, the high-security Kalighat neighbourhood sees an influx of her fans, many of whom crowd the entrance to the road leading to her home, only to be stopped by the cops and officials on CM security.
“The security has been tightened and visitor entry has been restricted keeping her safety in mind,” a police officer said while asking locals and even party workers to not crowd near the lanes leading to her home.
“We have seen Mamata growing up from a young woman to a fighter. But what leaves me amazed is the way she still carries the entire party on her shoulders and keeps walking just as she used to do 30 years ago. If the party manages to regain the lost seats this time, it will be for her willpower and sheer tenacity,” said an elderly artisan of the Patuapara, requesting anonymity.