COVID fear grips voters as party biggies lock horns | Economic Times

There is a complete shift in the voters’ mind in West Bengal — from the excitement about the high-decibel assembly poll to the surging pandemic wave in the state. The candidates in South Kolkata’s Ballygunge constituency — one of them is a medical doctor — are also following the same line.The constituency, which will go to polls on April 26 in the seventh phase of the Bengal election, will witness a high-profile fight between veteran All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) heavyweight and state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee and Dr Fuad Halim of the Sanyukta Morcha. The BJP has fielded advocate Lokenath Chatterjee. Covid protection is the prime in the mind of the voters. “Covid control is absolutely necessary and an eight-phase poll is a blunder,” Soma Ganguly, a homemaker, told ET.“The AITC has worked well in the area. Even now, Covid sanitisation and all other measures are being taken seamlessly by the councillor,” she said. "We did not have to approach the MLA and work was done by the local councillor himself.” Subrata Mukherjee, thus, is a natural choice for many in the area. He had won the seat in 2011 and 2016, defeating CPI-M’s Fuad Halim and Krishna Debnath of the Congress.“I am conducting door-to-door campaigns and small street corner meetings. My schedule has not changed much but I am taking all precautions for Covid. We are taking serious steps regarding Covid. The situation is very serious and we are taking all possible measures to make people aware about it,” Mukherjee told ET.Sanyukta Morcha’s Halim of the CPI-M, known for offering dialysis for the poor at ₹50 during lockdown last year, is famous for his community work.“While doing a campaign in an auto, we did sanitisation work, distribution of masks and spread the message of Covid awareness. We did not do any big meetings and did not enter the house campaign,” he told ET. “In every small meeting, I am telling people to take precautions and stay safe, maintain safe distance, etc.” Halim runs a standalone dialysis unit in Ballygunge with his friends and relatives. During the lockdown and the height of the pandemic in 2020, when hospitals were allegedly turning away suspected Covid patients, Halim’s unit treated all patients, Covid-positive or negative.After dialysis, symptomatic patients were sent to government fever clinics for tests.“Offering better healthcare is our motto, if Sanyukta Morcha is voted to power,” he said.“He had helped people during Covid lockdown and healthcare crisis,” said Asit Das, a resident of a slum on the fringes of Ballygunge’s Bondel gate area.Halim’s father, Hashim Abdul Halim, was the speaker of the Bengal assembly from 1982 to 2011, till the end of the Left regime. Mukherjee, a resident of the locality for decades, was a veteran Congress leader before he joined the AITC. He is known to be a ‘guru’ of Mamata Banerjee. He had won the Ballygunge seat for the first time in 1972. However, 1977 onwards, till 2005, it was held by the CPI-M. “There is hardly any candidate against me. Dr Fuad Halim is not a local person,” Subrata Mukherjee said, exuding confidence.