Kolkata: Ten minutes before Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee put her seal on the list of candidates for the upcoming Kolkata Municipality Corporation election, in the room next door, Kajari Banerjee didn’t have the slightest idea that her name would be on it.
“I got a phone call and honestly assumed it was a joke till leaders started calling to congratulate me. That’s when I knew the news wasn’t fake,” Kajari told ThePrint while walking in the bylanes of Ward 73, from where she will make her electoral debut on 19 December.
“Didi never shares any party details with the family. I went up to her after her meeting, my eyes almost tearing up. Didi told me she had given me this new responsibility and I could do it. It was an emotional moment for me,” she added.
53-year-old Kajari is the latest entrant into politics from Banerjee household, and the second woman after Mamata herself.
Kajari was born and brought up in the locality where she is contesting, and married Mamata’s brother, Kartik Banerjee, in 1993. “Since my marriage, I have seen Didi fight political battles. I have been campaigning for her ever since. Politics is a way of life for us at home. Each morning, we wake up and see Didi connect with the people and listen to their problems,” said Kajari.
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‘Mamata Banerjee is my strength’
When asked if Mamata had given her any tips for her first election, Kajari told ThePrint, “Didi has told me to meet all the people, listen to them, and if they have any complaints or problems, to make a note of them and work on them after the elections one by one.”
“Mamata Banerjee is my strength, and my husband is my pillar. Without his and my son’s support, I wouldn’t have been able to do this by myself,” she added. Kajari’s husband, Kartik Banerjee, is a well-known face in Kolkata in the political sphere, even though he has never stood in any elections. Her son is a doctor.
“Didi has told me never to go campaigning without eating. Even at this age, Didi is full of energy. I haven’t been able to meet her for the past few days as she has been drawing support in other states and has been very busy. But we will go and vote on Sunday together,” Kajari said.
Kajari has been concentrating on door-to-door campaigning while her husband holds street-corner meetings to garner support for his wife.
On the campaign trail
While on the last leg of campaigning for the day, even as workers started looking for her car, Kajari opted to walk down to the party office.
As she walked past a tea stall, she reminded the shopkeeper that her tea was pending, and she would come back for it after the election. She also stopped to speak to mothers who were waiting to pick up their children outside a school, sharing a light moment and asking about their well-being.
With more women than men by her side, Kajari smiled and waved as she entered homes seeking support. At one point, her supporters found a BJP flag fallen on the road, and she asked one of the workers to pick it up and keep it on the side as cars would drive over it. “It doesn’t matter which party it belongs to, don’t let it just lie in the middle of the road this way,” she said.
When her workers asked her to go into the narrowest of lanes and wave at residents, Kajari did it with a smile, giving a flying kiss to a toddler and seeking blessings from the elderly.
The TMC’s sitting councillor in the ward, Ratan Malakar, was denied a ticket this time, and at first decided to contest independently. However, he withdrew his candidature after the party’s top leadership intervened. Nevertheless, he remains popular in the area, with residents citing his example to ask Kajari if she would be reachable like him.
A resident of Ward 73 told Kajari when she knocked on their door that Malakar would come immediately if anyone called him for help. But would that be the case if they called Kajari, the woman asked. Would she be accessible?
“Give me a chance and see — you won’t be disappointed, I will be available at the office every day. If there is any problem, I will resolve it for you,” Kajari told the resident.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
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