For the first time ever, Buddha votes for Cong candidate

After terming the sharing of dais with Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice president at a rally in park Circus on April 27 as “historic”, former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, for the first time in his life on Saturday voted for Congress candidate.

Bhattacharya is a resident of Palm Avenue which falls under Ballygunge Assembly constituency where Krishna Debnath of Congress is pitted against the sitting MLA Subrata Mukherjee of Trinamool Congress. As one of the chief architects of the unholy alliance it is assumed that Bhattacharya has voted for Congress candidate. He along with his wife Mira went to the polling station and cast their votes in the morning. His comrades Biman Bose, Ashim Dasgupta, Rabin Deb, Soumendranath Bera had already voted for Congress candidates in Chowringhee and Bidhannagar constituencies.

Meanwhile, Bhattacharya’s comment describing the meeting as historic has not gone well in the party. Though Ganashakti, the party’s vernacular mouthpiece had published the news in its April 28 edition in the front page, the news got a berth in the fifth page in party’s organs in Kerala and Tripura. Commenting on Bhattacharya’s statement some veteran party leaders said as he was emotional and he had a tendency to go overboard. They recollected that after signing a MoU with the Salim group in Singapore to produce Arjuna motor cycle, a product of Mahabharat automobiles, Bhattacharya had called it “the biggest event of his life.” Because of his emotional trend he had resigned from Jyoti Basu’s cabinet calling it “a Cabinet of thieves.”

Mamata Banerjee on Saturday cast her vote at Mitra Institution. She came around 4 pm to cast her vote. Party MPs Moon Moon Sen and Tapas Paul along with their family members cast their votes in their respective constituencies in South Kolkata.