Candidates across political parties in West Bengal tried to make the most of the festival of Holi, adding colour to their campaign and connecting with the people in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election. Smeared with the colours of their respective parties, candidates of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Left parties mingled with voters.
Smeared with green gulaal (colour powder), TMC candidate from Sreerampur and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee was seen exchanging colours with the people on the streets. The TMC’s Barrackpore candidate Partha Bhowmick was seen playing drums. Holi is celebrated as the Dol Jatra in West Bengal. Holi also provided a festive opportunity for first-time Lok Sabha candidates, including Bapi Halder of the TMC, who is contesting from the Mathurapur Lok Sabha constituency in South 24 Parganas district.
In the BJP, the leaders whose candidature was announced on Sunday (March 24), celebrated with great enthusiasm. The BJP’s candidate from Barrackpore, Arjun Singh, not only hit the streets along with his supporters, but also dared to challenge his political opponent, Trinamool’s Partha Bhowmick, claiming that he would win the election with a margin of one lakh votes.
Former West Bengal Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who is contesting from Bardhaman Durgapur, was also soaking in the festivities, and said that he was taking the change of seat from Medinipur to Bardhaman Durgapur as a challenge. Another entrant from the Trinamool Congress, Tapas Roy, who was nominated from the Kolkata Uttar constituency, tried to make the most of the day by engaging in people-to-people connect while celebrating the festival of colours. The Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) young candidate from Jadavpur, Srijan Bhattacharyya, donned red gulaal as he greeted people in the Baghajatin area.
Like the CPI(M)’s Jadavpur candidate, many candidates reached out to the electorate without party symbols and flags. With battle lines being drawn, the candidates also exchanged barbs. Debasree Choudhury, the MP from Raiganj has been fielded by the BJP in Kolkata Dakshin against the Trinamool’s sitting MP, Mala Roy. Both the women MPs challenged each other to showcase the work they had done in their respective constituencies for the past five years.
