Burdwan, 09 May 04 : She is in Raiberaili and he is in Burdwan. Mr Nikhilananda Sar, the CPI-M candidate in Burdwan seat considers Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the AICC chief only as his contender in this years general election. Though Mrs Gandhi is contesting in Raiberaili seat and not in Burdwan, still she is considered by him as his rival who wants to set a national record defeating her. Mr Sar had defeated the BJP by a margin of 3.01 lakh vote lending him the third position in margin difference. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the AICC chief had topped the list by securing a margin of 3.58 lakh votes. 

Mr Sar is contesting for the third time. The former Burdwan Zilla Parishad Savadhipati and the chairman, Tantuja, Mr Sar himself belongs to an agricultural farmer family. The agricultural farmers and labourers comprise 80 percent voters stake in Burdwan that has a total voter of 1220992. Among which 621812 are male voters. Since 1952 it is gripped by the Marxists. The Burdwan voters even rejected the former Burdwan Maharaja, Vijay Chand Mahtav and had elected Mr Binoy Chowdhury, the undisputed leaders of peasant movement. The defeated Maharaja was quite upset with the defeat and did not return back to Burdwan from abroad, the historians said. Burdwan is considered as the 'Red Bastion' of Marxists since last 50 years. The rural stretches those comprise greater assembly segments like Memari, Jamalpur, Raina, Khandaghosh and Bhatar has agriculture as the lone option for livelihood. 

The agricultural mass following continued hike in diesel, fertiliser and seed prices and 50 percent reduction in subsidy in agriculture from 10 percent by the NDA has further portrayed a negative image of the BJP headed NDA here in Burdwan turf. The party that was defeated by a margin of 2.72 lakh vote in 1998 election performed worst ever in Burdwan in 1999 general election by helping the CPI-M a lead over 3.01 lakh vote. Mr Anup Mukherjee, the BJP candidate had secured mere 296487 votes in 1999. This time the party canged its candidate and fielded Mr Anindya Gopal Mitra to confront the Left Front. Indidentally, Mr Mitra reveived the first set back when the Election Commission ordered cancellation of his candidature due to his lapses in filing expese account properly during the previous assembly elections. he matter was sorted out however and Mr Mitra got back the spirit to get back in to the fighting turf. But the candidate himself does not look so confident to beat Mr Sar. 

Mr Sar meanwhile appears over confident to acheive the record margin to the extent that he is found campaigning in favour of CPI-M candidates in Katwa, Asansol and Bolpur. Every morning he is assigned by his party to run different Loksabha segments where the party candidates can not move braving the summer heat due to over age or the segment is smelling a threat by the NDA candidate's vigorous campaign. It is quite a rare scene during the elections in the state that a candidate is more visible in other constituencies than his own. He said, 'the voters need not to be disturbed frequently. They know what to do and how to do. This will do much for me.' He added, 'besides that the opposition must know that the CPI-M candidates win election not out of campaigning or rallies. They win out of mass contact and organisational strength of the party that exists actively round the year.' 

Truely, the Burdwan segment where from about 100 minority Kar Sevaks had prepared to march for Ayodha only in last year has no organisational offices in villages scattered miles after miles. Munshi Dalim, a BJP minority cell leader in Burdwan said, 'the BJP men are treated wildly if they expose their political identity. Thats why they can not brave to come out of their family courtyards freely.' This argument was rejected by Mr Amol Halder, the district CPI-M secretary. He said, 'we shall seek one such example from the honourable BJP brother that a person was tortured only because he was a BJP cadre. If its proved to be true, I shall visit the place myself and beg appology.' The CPI-M has no embarrassing issue raised by the opposition in Burdwan. Except the question of three fly overs sanctioned by the railway ministry and still not be implemented due to fund crunch by the state government. Incidentally the failure has been cited by the CPI-M candidate himself. The Railway has agreed to bear the expenses of installation of the flyovers. But the state government has failed to bear Rs 50 lakh expenses each required to construct the approach roads for those flyovers. Mr Sar said, 'I made the railway to accept the flyovers at Memari, Rasulpur and Kalna Fatak in Burdwan town but the state could not come forward due to fund crunch.' The leader however is planning to raise the demand for another flyover at Talit crossing. He said, 'I hope things will be alright next time.'