Deepa Dasmunshi is very different from Mamata Banerjee, the sitting MLA from Kolkata’s Bhawanipur constituency and the fiery chief minister of the state.
Mamata is one of the few women politicians at her level who has not had a godfather leading her through troubled waters. She is Didi, not Bhabhi or Beti.
Deepa di, unlike her opponent, has the poise and confidence of a classic bhodrolok. Not a hair out of place, the perfect Bindi and an ease with English that few Indians possess.
She is also the wife of Congress leader Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, a former cabinet minister and one of his party’s biggest faces in Bengal. Dasmunshi, however, has been in a coma for the last few years. And Boudi (Bhabi in Hindi), is still known as his wife to Congress workers, even in her office.
Deepa Dasmunshi spoke to The Quint about the Congress-Left alliance, their plans for industrialising the state if they won and how the Narada news sting and flyover collapse will ensure her victory over the chief minister.
She has certainly galvanised her party, and local congress workers swear by her. But off camera, when you ask them if she will win, they aren’t as confident as their candidate.
“Cheshta to korchi, kintu aita to Didi er-gorh” ( we are trying, but this is Didi’s stronghold)
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