At an upscale South Kolkata park, a few elderly citizens are busy talking. A 12-year-old runs up to the only khadi-clad person in this group and asks: “You are Netaji’s grandson right? There’s a resemblance.”
A bit embarrassed, but smiling, Chandra Kumar Bose attempts to make a correction. He is actually legendary freedom fighter ‘Netaji’ Subhas Chandra Bose’s grand nephew, the grandson of Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose.
Undoubtedly, Netaji’s name brings a strong emotional connect to Bengalis. And, this is exactly the rallying point for the BJP in the high-profile Bhabanipur constituency.
The party has fielded 57-year-old Bose to take on Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on her home turf in the heart of Kolkata. The Congress-Left combine’s nominee, Deepa Das Munshi, wife of former Union Minister Priyaranjan, is the other heavy-weight candidate.
“I know the going isn’t easy for me. But, people have been responsive. There are multiple complaints against TMC which I hope to capitalise on,” Bose tells BusinessLine .
Strangely, the numbers are on BJP’s side. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, a Narendra Modi wave had seen BJP manage a slender 500-vote lead in the Assembly constituency, with the TMC coming in second. But, it is still baptism by fire for Bose, a first-timer in Bengal politics.
Suit-to-khadi transitionSo how did Bose, a former employee of Tata Steel, who now has his own firm, trade his suits for khadi?
His foray into politics, he claims, was “unplanned”. His father Amiya Bose was “for a very brief period” a BJP Vice-President. And Chandra has had a small stint with the Forward Bloc, the party set up by Netaji himself.
In fact, two of his family members – cousin Sugata Bose and relative Amit Mitra – are prominent faces of the TMC. Sugata’s father Sishir was a member of the Congress, while Subrata Bose, the latter’s brother, was with Forward Bloc.
But these did not inspire him to join politics. It was the fight for declassification of Netaji files that led him to meet Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. And this, he says, was the turning point.
“Netaji believed in the idea of inclusivity and upholding India as one. Among all the leaders I have met, Modi ji was the only one in whom I saw a firm belief for these principles. It inspired me to work for the party,” Bose maintains.
Moreover, the Congress had tried to obliterate Netaji’s legacy, Chandra says. But, Modi, unlike Mamata, declassified the files without seeking any political benefit.
The voice of reassuranceBose has a tough task at hand. His party, the BJP, is not even the principal opposition in an area where Trinamool will not spare an inch. A personalised campaign and right sensitisation, rather than rabble rousing, is his style.
While Bose is in the midst of an election campaign, a senior citizen comes up and praises the Trinamool, criticising the BJP. Party workers urge Bose to ignore the rant. Unfazed, Bose chats up with this person, only to know that the senior citizen’s son is settled in Bengaluru.
“If your son didn’t get the right job here, where is the development? Don’t you feel insecure because of his absence? Isn’t it the government’s failure then that sons of the soil are leaving the State?”
Is this man convinced? Maybe. Maybe not. But Bose claims this man will at least think twice before voting on April 30.