Polling day in TMC stronghold: ‘On days like today, it’s all about who has stronger males’

In the BJP’s workplace at Canning city in South 24 Parganas, it’s near midday, and two males behind a desk, with photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in every single place, are working the telephones continually.
Sunil Kumar Nayak dials the police observer and appears on the scribbled notes in entrance of him. “Sir, the TMC fellows are stopping our voters near the Kalibari area. Please go there,” he says. There is a pause as he listens to the response. “But what can I do, Sir? I keep calling because I keep getting information. Please look into it,” he says.
The South 24 Parganas district, bordering Kolkata, is a TMC bastion, with the get together sweeping the world within the 2016 Assembly elections, and holding on to Assembly segments and seats even because the BJP rose in 2019. On polling day, it’s also clear why.
Over the years, the TMC has constructed a formidable organisation on the bottom, that comes into impact not solely throughout the marketing campaign, however notably within the run-up, and through polling day. The BJP is now competing not solely to affect voters by way of its marketing campaign, but in addition create a parallel organisation that may examine. As Nayak says: “For days we talk of corruption, durniti… On days like today, it is all about who has the stronger men.”
Slightly after the final cellphone name to the police observer, three males stroll into the BJP’s workplace. “We tried to go into Narayanpur block, but we are only three, and they were at least 30 men,” says one. “They had 50. What could we have done? They saw us from a distance and we came back,” says one other.
Asked why that they had gone, on condition that they weren’t voters of the world, one man says, “Why don’t you ask them? They were overseeing the election. Why can’t we?”
Throughout polling day, whereas there have been allegations of violence – TMC candidate Saokat Mollah accused the ISF of planting crude bombs at Burhangarh; the ISF and BJP accused him of making an attempt to affect voters – there have been few indicators of outright violence. Yet, there have been different indicators of how “syndicates” run on election day.
Across cubicles in Canning East and West, there was the same old presence of sales space staff. Yet, there have been additionally males, standing aside in two teams, representing events, on the entrances and exits of inner lanes. As voters handed, every instructed the voters to vote a sure manner.
Undoubtedly although, not less than in Canning, there have been indicators of the TMC’s affect at play. In bylane after bylane, there have been solely TMC flags, with the others restricted to some pockets. Nayak admits that BJP brokers have been lacking in 30-40 of the overall 260 cubicles. Still, he believes the BJP can win.
“There are silent voters who are angry at their dominance and corruption. We can win, even though they are strong,” he says.