Pranab’s footwork on home turf

Warming To Election Summer, Pranab Plays Ball & Deepa Das Munshi Reaches Out To ‘In-Laws’ For Support
Devjyot Ghoshal, Udit Prasanna Mukherji & Subhro Maitra TNN
Jangipur/Kolkata: “Oi dekho Pranab babur gari aschhe (Hey, look Pranab babu’s car is coming),” cried little Osman. No, it was not the usual white Ambassador. Instead, a van sporting Pranab Mukherjee’s cutout whizzed past the dusty village road. Osman and his friends in this part of Raghunathganj are not bothered about the office Mukherjee holds. To them, he is an indulgent elderly person, the father figure of ‘gramin football’ in this area. Pranab Mukherjee has been doing this groundwork for the past year. His campaign has several layers, not just the one we are used to — road shows, slogan-shouting, fiery speeches loaded with jargon like sovereignty, recession, public distribution, inclusive development, that often sound like Hebrew to the young. If election is the art of communication, the gramin football project is a hit in the villages. But how could Mukherjee manage the time to organize such tournaments after addressing the Lok Sabha as a stand-in for finance minister, preparing political drafts for the AICC or meeting foreign delegates as external affairs minister? “He didn’t do it on his own. He conceived the idea and engaged an advertising agency to do the work for him,” said Mukherjee’s confidential assistant Pradyot Guha. The order came to Soubhagya Enterprises that engaged its sport wing, ALLSPORT, to introduce gramin tournaments in the memory of Kamadakinkar Mukherjee, Pranab’s father. “That was a year ago. Our men have been reaching out to village clubs and youths since then, organizing football, cricket and chess tournaments. Pranab babu clearly told us to do something on these lines because the youth here didn’t have scope to develop their skills,” said ALLSPORT director Srenik Sett. “We brought in footballers such as Gautam Sarkar and Sudhir Karmakar and chess wizard Dibyendu Barua to train the youth. Slowly, the camps became known as Pranab Mukherjee’s coaching camp. It is all about image building.” Pranab babu did not leave it entirely to the media agency, though. After each tournament, he took time out to hand over trophies to winners. Now, it seems to be paying. There is another set of dedicated professionals working on the campaign materials at Soubhagya’s office in Kolkata. They are not the usual stuff. Take, for instance, Soubhagya’s brochure on Pranab Mukherjee. The front page has the usual photograph with a jingle: ‘Kajer manush, kachher manush’ (A man who works and is close to people), which is central to all campaign materials. And the back cover has a 2009 calendar, with a list of holidays. “The idea is to establish a connect with the voter, give him something in the brochure that comes of use to him. We are also inserting a fourpage telephone index as part of the brochure. At least 10 out of 100 people will keep the brochure for a fortnight,” the director of the advertising agency said. The subtle style reminds one of another Congress-turned Trinamool Congress leader, Ajit Panja, who was a master in this art. What is there in Mukherjee’s brochure? A brief self-introduction and his 10 big contributions for the Jangipur constituency. “When Pranab babu was defence minister, he set up an army recruitment centre in Murshidabad. A passport office has been opened during his tenure as external affairs minister. A major chunk of his MPLAD funds has been spent on building the upcoming Sagardighi College,” said Guha. The only Congress person who figures in Mukherjee’s campaign other than Congress president Sonia Gandhi is strongman Adhir Choudhury. Mukherjee is trying his level best to come out of Adhir’s shadow, but is not in a position to do so without him, a Congress leader said.