Flower petals were showered on him and conch shells blown as Union External Affairs Minister and veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee began election campaign from his constituency here. Throughout his road-show, people gathered in large numbers to greet Mukherjee as he travelled in an open jeep. Later, addressing a rally in the evening, the 74-year-old politician said that this may be the last election he is contesting.

Clad in white, as Mukherjee came out of his house in Raghunathgunj, he was surrounded by hundreds of local residents. Incidentally, the house he has rented for the purpose of election campaign belongs to a local CPI(M) leader. As his convoy slowly moved through the narrow lanes of Kanupur, Sadekpur, Chandi Chowk villages, security personnel found it hard controlling the crowd.

“The higher secondary examination is going on. So, I cannot use microphones. I want to tell you that I want to carry on the development work and need your blessings for that. There is a problem of erosion by Padma River. I have made the Centre take it up, without waiting for the state Government which was dilly-dallying on the issue.

Mukherjee changed his scheduled route at least five times to reach out to more voters and visit areas like Noorpur and Fatullapur, bordering Bangladesh. Out of the seven Assembly segments under his parliamentary constituency, the Congress has only one. The CPI(M) has four and the RSP two.

Despite his long political career, Mukherjee had the first taste of electoral victory from Jangipur in the last parliamentary polls in 2004. He hinted that the second-term could well be his last.

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