Marwari community to support TMC in Salt Lake’s civic polls

The seeds of distrust were sown in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP pushed ahead of the TMC in 18 of 25 wards of Bidhannagar municipality. The township’s sizeable Marwari population (nearly 33%), had turned the tables on the ruling party. On Sunday, the TMC chose to win them over. Its point person — Kamal Gandhi, known to be an ardent follower of Jyoti Basu. 

It was not a surprise that the “closed-door” meeting with the Rajasthani Samaj would be held at the ninth-floor banquet hall named Jogajog in Salt Lake’s DD-30. A few hundred people had gathered there not only to publicly endorse support for the TMC’s ward 31 (the local ward) candidate Sabyasachi <g data-gr-id="43">Dutta,</g> but to also declare their allegiance to the TMC. 

“We don’t endorse any political party for personal gains, we do it for the larger good of the community,” Gandhi told Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim. “It was different in 2014. It was New Delhi that people voted for, not Salt Lake. Voters are now well-informed and understand such nuances well. Trinamool Congress has done commendable work, it needs our support,” Gandhi said. 

The presence of Dutta, whose father late Calcutta high court Bar Association president L C Biyani was himself a <g data-gr-id="40">Marwari,</g> just made the connect stronger. 

Reaching out to the community, Dutta said, “Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee works from her heart and not from her mind. And once leaders start doing that, you will find a lot of empathy in the work they do. What stopped the former regime to do the work you have witnessed in the last four years? And we are all set to get more. Parks, drinking water and now even the Smart City status. So what if you are minorities? You are now part of us. Bengal is your roots now, not Rajasthan.”

The tone and tenor of Hakim’s address, too, remained the same. “The Rajasthani Samaj has given us some fine legislators. Their philanthropic work among the community at large is well-known. By setting your businesses, big or small, you provide <g data-gr-id="38">livelihood</g> to many others. And by this you contribute to our growth. Judge us by the work we do, nothing else,” he said. 

The BJP wasted little time to react to the ‘meeting’. Party MLA Shamik Bhattacharya said, “The very fact that a community had to be isolated and reached out to indicates they are being threatened. The manner in which Kamal Gandhi carried out his pre-poll exercises in the Left Front regime is being replicated by the TMC now.”