Former Naxal with Mamata,‘Robin Hood’ with CPM

In Rajarhat-Newtown,the other seat created by the bifurcation,the CPM candidate is Tapas Chatterjee,known for the donations he keeps making to the poor. Against the local Robin Hood is Sabyasachi Dutta of the Trinamool Congress.

Bose,hailing from a middle-class family,joined the Naxalite movement while young and has been involved in movements in West Bengal and in states such as Madhya Pradesh. He led pro-Naxalite labour units in Karoria Jute Mills in 1993-94 when the owners closed it down. After joining Mamata Banerjee during the Singur movement,he was involved in her Nandigram land movement,too. This was no shift of ideology,he says,for Mamata is a true leftist.

“I may have joined mainstream,parliamentary politics but I still believe in leftist ideology. Look at the way the CPM has deviated from its ideology. We started our politics hearing slogans like ‘Tata-Birla murdabad’ and then the CPM courted the Tatas in Singur,” says Bose.

“Mamata Banerjee is a true Leftist. The issues she has raised are pro-poor; that is why I have joined the Trinamool. If elected,I will try to get snatched land back to farmers in Rajarhat.”

Chatterjee,who has been a chairman of Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality,feeds over 150 local clubs with his donations. “He is God to us. Under his leadership,we take care of any problem faced by the needy,” says Abdul Karim of Naba Balak Sangha.

Among the things Chatterjee funds is the education of the young and the bright,such as Sabita Das,now in Class VII,and whom Chatterjee had found in one of his processions. “My father was a rickshaw-puller without a rickshaw of his own. Tapasda bought him one and pays for my education,” she says.

Chatterjee explains why he keeps at it. “I belonged to a very poor family and lost my parents as a child. My grandmother used to work in people’s houses to run our family. I can never forget those days,” says Chatterjee,who joined politics at age 17 and became the youngest panchayat member at 21.

“Whatever I earn,I keep 40 per cent for my family and the rest I distribute among the poor,” Chatterjee says.