Long before the British, Marwaris like Hiranand Sahu, Manik Chand, and Madhab Rai, who received the title of ‘Jagat Seth’, dominated the trade sector in West Bengal and its surrounding states such as Bihar and even Extended its wings to Dhaka (now Dhaka). , in Bangladesh).
Such was his clout that in 1744, Robert Orme, historian of the East India Company, named Madhab Rai the richest man in the world.
Since then Marwaris and later Gujaratis have dominated the business sector of Bengal and most of them are settled in and around Bhabnipur, which will see a high voltage election on 30 September with one of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s candidates. He is going. A large number of such communities are also settled in Burabazar – one of the largest trading centers in India.
Knowing his strength, which could prove decisive in the Bhawanipur by-election, Mamata has decided to meet him on 16 September as part of an outreach programme.
The event will be held in a park behind Sir Ramesh Mitra Girls’ High School located 15, Jogesh Mitra Road, Padapukur.
The TMC president is contesting the bypoll as she has to be elected to the state assembly within six months of taking over as the chief minister on May 5. She lost the Nandigram assembly seat to her former hero Suvendu Adhikari, who is now with the BJP. State elections were held this year.
News18 visited Jadubur Bazar, Lansdowne Market, Elgin Road and Chakraberia Road to understand the pulse of the non-Bengali business community.
Shopkeepers, traders, traders and residents of the area indicated that the Trinamool Congress president has an edge in the election contest.
The traders said that they are happy with the support of their councillors. Some of them accused the BJP-led central government of mishandling the COVID-19 situation by announcing a sudden lockdown in the country, which significantly affected their business.
Yudhishthar Agrawal, a grain wholesaler in Lansdowne Market, said, “We are doing business in Bhabnipur since 1956 and I live in ward no 72. I can proudly say that ever since Didi (Mamata Banerjee) came to power, we never did. Did you face any problem in running your business. It is easy to do business here and I have no words to praise my ward councillor. He is very helpful. On the other hand Narendra Modi ji is increasing the prices of diesel and petrol every day and this has affected our business.
The April-May assembly elections in West Bengal saw significant communal polarisation. Bhabnipur has around 16.8 per cent Muslim voters, who dominate Ward No. 77 and 80, while wards 70, 71 and 72 mainly have Marwari, Gujarati, Sikh, Oriya, Maharashtrian, Bihari, Telugu and Tamil communities.
Ward no. 73, where Mamata Banerjee lives, has a mix of voters, but crucially, it has around 10-12 per cent sex workers who are staunch TMC supporters.
Nand Ram, who runs a tailoring shop in Jadubur Bazar, says he suffered massive financial losses during the lockdown. His family lives in Bihar and the pandemic situation has left him with little money to survive.
“Last year I went to a local TMC club and to my surprise they helped me financially. I sent money to my wife in Bihar and she took care of me in Kolkata. They used to provide me food and my medicines. The local TMC leaders in Bhabnipur are very helpful. Now you tell me, why won’t we give our vote to Didi? he said.
A close analysis of the electoral data for Bhabnipur assembly constituency reveals that around 83.2 per cent of the voters are Hindu or ‘religious community’. Further dissection reveals that about 16 per cent of these are Marwaris, 1.5 per cent Sikhs, 2.5 per cent Gujaratis and the remaining 63.2 per cent Hindus Bengalis.
Manjit Singh, a readymade garments trader in Jadubur Bazar, said, “This pandemic situation has led to increased material cost and the informal sector has suffered a lot. Our profit margin has come down due to sharp increase in transportation cost and we are paying more tax. So, overall, small traders like us are deeply saddened by the present BJP government at the Centre.”
When asked who is going to win the bypolls, he said, “I think Mamata di will win the polls, but I see that BJP is also working hard to speed up its campaign in the region.”
In 2011, Subrata Bakshi of TMC won the seat by nearly 50,000 votes defeating his nearest rival Narayan Prasad Jain of CPI(M). Trinamool fought the elections in alliance with the Congress.
Bakshi then vacated the seat to make room for Mamata Banerjee, an MP, so that she could be elected to the state assembly. She won the by-election by defeating her nearest CPI(M) rival Nandini Mukherjee by a margin of nearly 54,000 votes.
On May 21, 2021, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay resigned as TMC MLA from Bhabnipur to make way for Mamata Banerjee once again.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded advocate Priyanka Tibrewal against the Chief Minister. Speaking to News18, BJP’s campaign committee chairman for the seat, Rudranil Ghosh, said, “Today, we had a meeting on the campaign strategy and it was decided that initially, we will mobilize our local leaders. We will intensify the campaign in Bhabnipur from September 20 to 27, where national leaders like Manoj Tiwari, Smriti Irani, Shahnawaz Hussain and Hardeep Singh Puri ji will be present.
The BJP has a large support base in this constituency, which mainly consists of Gujaratis, Marwaris and Sikhs. In such a situation, the party feels that Priyanka Tibrewal, a resident of Bhawanipur, will give a good fight to the CM.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Tathagata Roy was the BJP’s Kolkata South candidate and finished second only to TMC’s Subrata Bakshi, but took a lead in Bhabnipur assembly constituency by 184 votes.
In this year’s assembly elections, out of the total eight wards of Bhabnipur, the BJP was leading on two and trailing in two others by only a small margin.
Tibrewal will interact with traders in Jadubur Bazar of Ward No. 71 on Wednesday and will also visit Ward No. 72. Till September 21, she has done 11 public programs in Bhabnipur.
Madhav Mishra, a construction material supplier in ward number 74, said he has decided to vote for the BJP because of “syndicate raj”. He accused the ruling TMC workers of harassing them in the name of “puja membership”.
He said, “Every month, they come for ‘puja membership’ and have threatened me many times if I refuse. I think only BJP can bring some relief.
BJP MP Roopa Ganguly, who is one of the star campaigners of Bhawanipur, said, “I am currently in Varanasi and will start campaigning for Priyanka Tibrewal in a day or two. I think this time people should realize that they should not vote for the person who was rejected by the people of Nandigram. The same Nandigram in East Midnapore, which helped him to come to power in Bengal. I think without Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee (CM’s nephew and Trinamool leader), TMC would do better in Bengal.
Due to COVID pandemic concerns, the Election Commission has restricted public meetings to 30 per cent of the permitted capacity or 200 people in case of indoor meetings (whichever is less).
In case of meetings in open spaces, gatherings have been restricted to 50 per cent of the total ground capacity. No road shows or vehicular rallies are being allowed.
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