Solely 48 hours in the past, Ganguly had resigned as a Calcutta HC decide, having courted controversies. His penchant for ordering CBI and ED probes, dragging TMC and its chief Abhishek Banerjee in unrelated case hearings, questioning the integrity of SC and HC judges who overturned his orders, and regardless of being in a single-judge bench, reversing a division bench order, got here beneath scanner.His judgments required SC intervention twice.
Minimize to his first political presser. Ganguly, 61, restricted himself to claiming that he was merely a foot soldier. “…I’m comfortable to hitch BJP and can work as a celebration soldier. Our goal is to oust the corrupt TMC,” he stated.
Quickly after his swap, TMC alleged political motives behind his rulings within the instructor recruitment case. CM Mamata Banerjee has described Ganguly as a “BJP babu who was sitting on the bench”. Claiming that Ganguly turned a pacesetter “after denying jobs to 1000’s of scholars (referring to the recruitment case)”, she declared: “Be prepared. Wherever you contest from, I’ll ship college students to struggle you.”
Three weeks later, at a roadshow by means of a winding sixfoot highway inside Alinan village, Ganguly has not solely already swapped his black robes for a crisp white kurta-pyjama and jacket, he seems aggressive and combative. Launched as an “erudite anti-corruption crusader set for a high job at Centre”, Ganguly claims the dying knell has been sounded for the state govt. “There are not any jobs right here, no business or agriculture. The educated are being compelled to maneuver to Bengaluru and Mumbai, the much less educated are shifting to Gujarat and Kerala. TMC has been promoting you desires. I had caught a number of the ministers and bureaucrats committing such crimes in my tenure as a decide,” he claims.
On paper, the battle could look simple for Ganguly. As soon as a Left bastion, Tamluk LS constituency, within the latest decade, has turned a bastion of the Adhikaris, and state chief of opposition Suvendu Adhikari represents one in every of its meeting segments, Nandigram, the place he snatched a historic—and controversial—win in 2021, defeating Mamata who moved court docket in opposition to his election.
Nandigram meeting seat had offered TMC a lead of over 90,000 votes within the final LS elections, the place Suvendu’s brother Dibyendu, then with Trinamool and now with BJP, finally gained by over 1.9 lakh votes. Of the seven meeting seats in Tamluk, TMC gained 4 and BJP the remainder. Tough estimates say fewer than 15,000 votes — a low margin for an LS contest — separates the 2 sides.
And but, Ganguly is aware of the job is easi er stated than carried out. Trinamool has chosen its younger chief and head of social media cell Debangshu Bhattacharya, 27. Identified for his oratory abilities and armed with an engineering diploma, Bhattacharya shot to fame in 2021 with the ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan. He’s arrange a short lived residence at Kolaghat — the entry level to Tamluk — and insists on people-topeople contact.
Ganguly can also be conscious of the over 14% minority votes within the constituency, and is wooing them, in distinction to Suvendu’s 2021 marketing campaign in Nandigram. The former decide, who has already visited a dargah at Mahishadal, stated, “It’s not simply me. My get together stands for an inclusive India.”
TMC leaders, in the meantime, stated that Ganguly is just not solely cautious as a result of “the controversies he courted over his Godse-Gandhi and Mamata remarks, but additionally conscious of points inside BJP”. The struggle between the “previous BJP and new TMC-turned-BJP leaders” has gone to the extent of the previous distributing leaflets in Nandigram accusing the latter of extortion. However Ganguly stays unperturbed.
“PM Modi has taken up a number of tasks to extend the happiness index. This state govt is not going to let these tasks attain right here. I’ll act because the agent of change,” he concludes at a gathering in Haldia.
