Wall-fighting spices up electioneering in West Bengal

Kolkata, April 30: GRANTED, the Election Commission has banned writing poll slogans on public buildings in West Bengal. But that hasn’t stopped the inspirational party cadres to try their brushes on rival leaders. It’s always ‘‘permissible’’ to add a speech bubble or two, and the end-result is often as hilarious as politically incisive.

Go round the streets of the city of joy and you will find all kind of colourful and innovative wall-works done by different parties — the CPI(M) and its partners in the Front, the Trinamool Congress, the Congress and the BJP.

Though many might not like such defacing of walls, it seems impossible to jack up the tempo of campaigning without graffiti during election time in the state.
One CPI-M sketch depicts Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee as a power hungry woman, who is bent upon becoming the Chief minister at the cost of enlightenment.

Though the relation between Mamata and the rebel party leader Ajit Panja may have soured now, some of the paintings portray Mamata asking Ajit Panja (known for his performance in the role of Ramakrishna) to make her the Chief Minister.

The Trinamool wall paintings depict ‘‘the reign of terror unleashed by the goons of the CPI(M) In Keshpur and other adjoining areas of Midnapore, asking if people wants this to continue’’.

‘‘Nandan (the state government cinema complex) and Chandan, the millionaire businessman son of ex-chief minister Jyoti Basu are the only two achievements of the 24-year rule of the Left Front government in West Bengal,’’ claims a Trinamool graffiti.

To counter both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance, BJP graffiti depict Vajpayee as Rama and CPI(M), Trinamool and Congress as ‘‘evil forces’’ like Ravana.

Senior Trinamool leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay uses popular cartoon characters such as Tintin, Blondie, Captain Haddock, Phantom, Mandrake to convey his message to the electorate. Chattopadhyay says he is using the cartoon characters because people are fed up with caricature of politicians.
Some candidates even drew up EVMs on the walls and explained to voters where to push the button. (PTI)