‘Mr India’ to ‘Miss Universe’: In Serampore, maverick Kalyan Banerjee eyes 4th term in three-way bitter fight

The Serampore constituency near Kolkata in West Bengal is witnessing a high-voltage campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections, where senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and sitting MP Kalyan Banerjee, 67, is locked in a triangular contest with BJP candidate and his former son-in-law Kabir Shankar Bose and the CPM’s 30-year-old candidate Dipsita Dhar.

While lawyer-politician Kalyan, who has been winning from Serampore since 2009 for consecutive three terms, is confident about retaining his seat, Kabir seems to be relying on “anti-incumbency” against him, even as their face-off has turned hostile and personal.

Dipsita is a national joint secretary of the SFI, the CPM’s students wing, and a PhD scholar at the JNU. By nominating her from Serampore as part of its strategy to field a mix of young faces and experienced leaders, the CPM – the leader player of the Left Front, which is contesting the polls in an alliance with the Congress – is hoping to launch the process of its revival in the state.

A close lieutenant of TMC supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Kalyan is known to be a maverick, outspoken leader. He was in the eye of a storm last December over a video from the Parliament complex showing him, surrounded by other suspended Opposition MPs, ostensibly mimicking the Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

During his current electioneering, Kalyan reportedly asked film actor Kanchan Mullick – the TMC MLA from Uttarpara, which is among the Serampore’s seven Assembly segments – to get down from his car and not canvass for him, claiming that the latter was “not popular among women in rural areas”.

Kalyan has been trading allegations and jibes with his rivals in the fray. Dipsita recently attacked