Poll tempo slow in

In many ways, the polls in West Bengal this time has all the promise of a slog over contest. The election tempo as witnessed in Bengal traditionally has been missing till now. Things have been sedate and balanced. The voters' response to political campaigns so far is at best lukewarm.

One reason, why the campaigns lack depth and emotion, is attributed by political circles to the fast changing developments and realignment of political forces at the national level which had its repercussions on the state as well.

The seat sharing arrangements between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress party, for instance, took concrete shape only about a fortnight before the polls. The CPM, always ahead as far as the campaigning is concerned, had to recast its battle strategies following the TMC-Congress party alliance.

All this time, the CPM was trying to warm up to the Congress party in its bid to find an alternative to the NDA government at the centre. The party had to resharpen its attack on the Congress party after it became evident that Sonia was listening more to Mamata Banerjee than Harkishen Singh Surjeet.

A graffiti on a South Kolkata wall captured the spirit best. Just a couple of days before the Trinamool Congress walked out of the NDA, the poster showed Surjeet singing a song to Sonia Gandhi: "Kaho na pyar hai (say you love me, after a popular Hindi movie)." It was Trinamool Congress' dig at the CPM for courting the Congress party at the national level.

The sarcasm was also aimed at the Congress party whom the Trinamool described as the 'B' team of the CPM in West Bengal. But the tehelka.com expose changed all that. So did the cartoon on that particular South Kolkata wall. Mamata Banerjee occupied the space of Surjeet. And it was not Surjeet, but Mamata who was now singing to Sonia: "Pyar to hona hee thaa (we had to fall in love, a popular Hindi movie song)" read the graffiti.

There has not been any dearth of the visual glamour, though. Everyday, the city and the districts are being decked up with festoons, flags, colourful graffiti and banners. Small street corner meetings and door to door campaigns have taken the place of big rallies at the Brigade parade Ground or Esplanade East.

But come May, there are all the indications of the poll heat climbing up fast. Almost the Who's Who of Indian politics are going to hit the campaign trail in Bengal from the first week of May. Sonia Gandhi is the first one to troop down to North Bengal, tentatively on May 3 to address a series of meetings in Siliguri, Raigunj, Cooch Behar and Malda.

Sonia is expected to do a second leg in the second week of May and round off her joint campaigns with Mamata in South Bengal districts, the Trinamool stronghold.