Only 48 hours ago, Ganguly had resigned as a Calcutta HC judge, having courted controversies. His penchant for ordering CBI and ED probes, dragging TMC and its leader Abhishek Banerjee in unrelated case hearings, questioning the integrity of SC and HC judges who overturned his orders, and despite being in a single-judge bench, reversing a division bench order, came under scanner.His judgments required SC intervention twice.
Cut to his first political presser. Ganguly, 61, restricted himself to claiming that he was merely a foot soldier. “…I am happy to join BJP and will work as a party soldier. Our objective is to oust the corrupt TMC,” he said.
Soon after his switch, TMC alleged political motives behind his rulings in the teacher recruitment case. CM Mamata Banerjee has described Ganguly as a “BJP babu who was sitting on the bench”. Claiming that Ganguly became a leader “after denying jobs to thousands of students (referring to the recruitment case)”, she declared: “Be ready. Wherever you contest from, I will send students to fight you.”
Three weeks later, at a roadshow through a winding sixfoot road inside Alinan village, Ganguly has not only already swapped his black robes for a crisp white kurta-pyjama and jacket, he appears aggressive and combative. Introduced as an “erudite anti-corruption crusader set for a top job at Centre”, Ganguly claims the death knell has been sounded for the state govt. “There are no jobs here, no industry or agriculture. The educated are being forced to move to Bengaluru and Mumbai, the less educated are shifting to Gujarat and Kerala. TMC has been selling you dreams. I had caught some of the ministers and bureaucrats committing such crimes in my tenure as a judge,” he claims.
On paper, the battle may look easy for Ganguly. Once a Left bastion, Tamluk LS constituency, in the recent decade, has turned a bastion of the Adhikaris, and state leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari represents one of its assembly segments, Nandigram, where he snatched a historic—and controversial—win in 2021, defeating Mamata who moved court against his election.
Nandigram assembly seat had provided TMC a lead of over 90,000 votes in the last LS elections, where Suvendu’s brother Dibyendu, then with Trinamool and now with BJP, eventually won by over 1.9 lakh votes. Of the seven assembly seats in Tamluk, TMC won four and BJP the rest. Rough estimates say fewer than 15,000 votes — a low margin for an LS contest — separates the two sides.
And yet, Ganguly knows the job is easi er said than done. Trinamool has chosen its young leader and head of social media cell Debangshu Bhattacharya, 27. Known for his oratory skills and armed with an engineering degree, Bhattacharya shot to fame in 2021 with the ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan. He’s set up a temporary home at Kolaghat — the entry point to Tamluk — and insists on people-topeople contact.
Ganguly is also aware of the over 14% minority votes in the constituency, and is wooing them, in contrast to Suvendu’s 2021 campaign in Nandigram. The former judge, who has already visited a dargah at Mahishadal, said, “It’s not just me. My party stands for an inclusive India.”
TMC leaders, meanwhile, said that Ganguly is not only wary due to “the controversies he courted over his Godse-Gandhi and Mamata remarks, but also aware of issues within BJP”. The fight between the “old BJP and new TMC-turned-BJP leaders” has gone to the extent of the former distributing leaflets in Nandigram accusing the latter of extortion. But Ganguly remains unperturbed.
“PM Modi has taken up multiple projects to increase the happiness index. This state govt will not let those projects reach here. I will act as the agent of change,” he concludes at a meeting in Haldia.
