It’s a battle for legacy between the wife and protégé of late Subhas Chakraborty as Belgachhia East goes to polls on November 7.

While Ramola repeatedly invokes the memories of the maverick CPM leader who won from here for a record seven times, Trinamool’s Sujit Basu is following his godfather election strategy, personally visiting every family, something Subhas had perfected as an art. Basu, a CPM dissident who left the party 10 years ago, remained loyal to his mentor till the latter breathed his last a few months ago, necessitating the bypoll in his pocket borough.

But this time around, things look uncertain for his wife Ramola — Subhash himself had won the seat in 2006 with a slender margin of 1,700 votes, with his disciple Sujit Basu breathing down his neck as a Trinamool candidate.

And if the 2009 Lok Sabha poll results are anything to go by, Ramola could be lagging behind Basu by around 12,000 votes.

Ramola, however, is confident his late husband’s mass appeal and legacy will carry the day for her. “I have agreed to the party’s decision. I do not know how many women will be able to contest the election in my condition... I have lost Subhas just few days back,” she said some time ago. Not surprising, her speech is limited to Subhas’s life and CPM workers screen a documentary produced by their party on the late leader at rallies addressed by Ramola in Salt Lake.

Basu, on the other hand, is letting his style he has copied from his mentor speak for itself. Like Subhas, Basu is knocking every door, meeting booth committee members, selecting polling agents and making a survey of the pattern of votes. “Chakraborty did it all, much earlier. I do not want to disclose what the margin will be, but I will surely win,” he says.

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