Plagued by Crime and Corruption, Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha Polls: ‘Bhaipo versus Bobby’ Set for Bengal’s Amethi

Abhishek Banerjee, the de facto leader of the Trinamool Congress, is competing against Abhijit Das of the BJP in Diamond Harbour, West Bengal’s Amethi. The saffron party just revealed their candidate in this Lok Sabha seat last week, after much consideration, brainstorming, and scouting. They referred to the delay as a “strategic surprise.”

However, the political talk is that Abhishek Banerjee is being given a “walkover” because of the late announcement and the candidate selection. On the other hand, the district’s BJP officials are trying to seem strong, saying that Abhijit Das is the only one who is familiar with Abhishek and his “acts,” and they would do all in their power to oppose him.

For a number of reasons, Diamond Harbour in the South Parganas district is the most important seat in West Bengal. Its history is colonial, and its present is brutal.

State politics have always been plagued by political violence, which includes ransacking, arson, murder, assault, and criminal intimidation, but this district has taken the lead since the 2018 panchayat elections.

A POPULAR RUTH
Locals said that despite the CPM fielding a youthful candidate in Pratik Ur Rahaman, the seat is up for a bipolar struggle. They are referring to it as a “Bhaipo vs. Bobby” duel, with Das, who goes by his nickname locally, as “Bobby,” and Abhishek, who is the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Das, a relatively unknown figure in Bengali politics, faced Abhishek just once in 2014. In 2019, he was appointed as the state BJP’s district president during the TMC leader’s second term. Raised by the RSS, this local politician entered the political sphere and stood for election for the first time in 2009. He lost in both 2009 and 2014, at a time when the BJP was little organized in the state.

“The historical background and organizational capacity should be the foundation for assessing my political career. My investment was forfeited in 2009, but was the problem assessed at the time by anyone? Not only was our party not well-known in the state, but we were not even present here. The people did not recognise the emblem of the BJP. The party was completely ad hoc in 2014 and lacked organizational capacity. I did not do too badly, since I received 17% of the vote here, which also happened to be the party’s vote share throughout the state, Das said in News18.

Referring to Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, “Abhishek is nothing but a Hitler.” Voting has not even been possible for the public since 2014, the year he was first elected as an MP. Nor is it about voters who oppose. Voting was prohibited for even Trinamool supporters. This is the level of dread and intimidation. He controls these gangs of criminals. “I don’t fear him; he ought to fear the people,” he said, characterizing the BJP’s slow decision to announce him as a candidate as a “planned move.”

Abhishek has not yet begun campaigning in his own area; he is touring other constituencies. Abhishek’s close friend and Trinamool MLA Saokat Molla said, “Abhishek Banerjee has developed this area.” Do you notice the recently constructed roads, the all-women university, the super-speciality hospital, and the kisan mandis? “Is this not development?” he inquired.

“He has invested Rs 5,800 crore over the last ten years to improve this constituency. People will bless him because they adore him. The BJP would get the fewest votes from this seat and there is no contest here, he said.

Molla is regarded as Abhishek’s most dependable lieutenant and is in control of a significant chunk of Diamond Harbour.

RED HERRING
Pratik Ur Rahaman, 33, is the candidate the CPM is running with in Diamond Harbour. He is well-known, a local, and now serves as the vice-president of SFI on a national level. He participated in the 2021 elections as well.

Additionally, the CPM of the future is a component of the state committee of the party. “I believe that battling and dealing with unrelenting violence is the hardest challenge a politician can have during an election. Bengal is experiencing a terror psychosis. The reason Diamond Harbour has suffered the most is because Abhishek, dubbed the “Hitler,” is in charge here, he said.

“Not even a rental vehicle for me here. I had one for a day, but the driver contacted me the next day to report receiving threats. This is how intimidated we are in this situation. During the panchayat and assembly elections, several of our workers were forced to flee and have not been able to return to their communities for the last four to five years due to beatings and bruises. But unlike the BJP, we would battle and not give up easily, he told News18 as he got out of the autorickshaw he had leased for his election campaign since he didn’t have a vehicle.

Despite Rahaman’s courage, the locals said that the CPM is only a “red herring” and not a force to be reckoned with.

THE “INVULNERABLE” FORT OF TMC
The TMC has a 40% Muslim vote share advantage in Diamond Harbour. Muslims have historically continued to be the TMC’s major source of support. Political analysts claimed that this gives the party a big margin and keeps it afloat. This is also reflected in election data and the political parties’ vote shares.

The district of South 24 Parganas has 31 assembly segments and four Lok Sabha seats. Thirteen of these assembly segments include a combination of semi-urban and urban locations, while at least eighteen of them are primarily rural. There are more than thirty percent of Muslims in at least seventeen assembly districts, with at least seven having more than forty-five percent of Muslims.

Since the general elections in 2009, the area has been a TMC stronghold and has been essential to Mamata Banerjee’s near-monopoly over southern Bengal. Since 2009, the party has been victorious in this seat.

2014 saw Abhishek enter the race once, and 2019 saw him do so one more time. In 2014, he prevailed by almost 70,000 votes, and in 2019, he did so by about 3.5 lakh votes.

Acts of violence, intimidation, and rigging: the “routine” for voters
The constituency, which consists of the seven assembly seats of Falta, Satgachia, Bishnupur, Budge Budge, Maheshtala, Metiaburuz, and Diamond Harbour, was traversed by News18. While the incumbent party has held all 68 panchayats across the Lok Sabha seat since the elections in 2023, the TMC won all of them in 2021.

Among the seven divisions, there are certain commercial and industrial zones in Falta, Metiaburuz, and Budge Budge. These include hosiery units, chemical manufacturers, and jute mills. However, the majority component is the voters in rural areas.

Claiming to be TMC voters, several village inhabitants in these locations said they had been denied the right to vote for years. “I worked for Trinamool for twenty years, but I have since cut ties. My family and I have been denied the right to vote in the previous five or six elections, including the panchayat elections. We haven’t received the money for our 100 days of labor because the panchayat pradhan wants a piece of everything, according to Zakir Hossain.

He is a professional fisherman who has been living in a mud shack ever since the Amphan typhoon destroyed his home. He went on, “We didn’t even get the financial assistance announced by the government.”

However, his older sister, Moyna Bibi, said that she receives a Rs. 500 monthly stipend under the state government’s flagship “Lakshmir Bhandar” program.

“We have been bearing with everything, including the extortion and the rule of giving a cut from the cash we receive through government schemes,” said 50-year-old Falta farmer Ram Dolui. Nonetheless, the brutality keeps us on edge. 2018 has been a year of extraordinary violence. We were TMC voters, but we were denied the right to vote.

Many villagers expressed concern about the recurrent conflicts and said that there were “unspoken rules” about providing “cut money” to “syndicates.”

The History of The Harbour
The harbor has a significant symbolic past. When Portuguese pirates first stormed it, it was known as Hajipur. Portuguese explorers later made landfall here.

This is where the term “harmad,” meaning “armed mercenaries of political parties” in common language, originated, according to some historians. The term “harmad” is a colloquial misinterpretation of “armada,” which was originally intended for Portuguese pirates.

This location, known as Diamond Harbour in British-ruled India, served as the “rulers'” preferred river and sea port for commerce. Importantly, before taking office in 2011, Mamata coined and popularized the term “harmad” to refer to the CPM’s “armed goons.” However, the opposition now refers to the TMC cadres using the same term.