The small village had turned into nothing less than a battlefield.
By Abhishek Sengupta (Reporting from West Bengal)
Published: Mon 13 May 2019, 12:00 AM
Last updated: Wed 15 May 2019, 12:27 AM
"There you go!" Mohammed Sohrab Ali, who looked too frail to be a 64-year-old his voter ID claimed, said while offering me a cup of 'suleimani' or 'liquor tea' as they call it in this part of the world. He had obviously assumed I wasn't fasting for Ramadan like his nephews - who despite being Muslims are often unable to fast during the holy month because of their tough routine as daily wage workers and no shortened hours or mid-day break in India.
"Have it. You can feel safe here," he said next, before I could tell him that I fast too in solidarity with my Muslim brothers every Ramadan. As I grabbed the cup and took a sip, as if not to hurt his sentiments, I wondered the irony of it all.
When tension simmered just past noon in Keshpur, a small Muslim-dominated village in West Midnapore about 145km from Kolkata yesterday, Bharati Ghosh - BJP's candidate in the Ghatal constituency that surrounds Keshpur and six other villages and towns - took refuge in a temple while I got shelter in a tea shop run by the old Muslim man.
Moments ago Ghosh, a former IPS officer and once a trusted aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, broke down after she claimed she was attacked, heckled and pushed to the ground at a polling station and her party worker allegedly kidnapped (watch our exclusive interview with her on www.khaleejtimes.com) as her constituency of little over 1.6 million voters went to polls along with seven other seats in West Bengal in the sixth and penultimate phase of India's general election on Sunday.
The small village had turned into nothing less than a battlefield with local residents - mostly supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress countering and finally chasing the ex-supercop into a temple where she was holed up for hours as a platoon of local police and CRPF patrolled the roads in a curfew-like situation with gun shots allegedly fired too.
Trouble had started early in the day while I was reporting from neighbouring Ghatal and Daspur but it broke out in its full fury around noon when an angry mob started pelting stones - some aimed at the media vehicles.
At its peak, there were fair chances of a further flare-up and for the first time I realised what getting caught in the eye of a storm really meant. Police, and an angry mob, are usually indiscriminate in their action and there was little I could have done to pull myself out the line of fire, if I had not found Sohrab Ali, who drew me into a long conversation that finally ended over three rounds of 'liquor tea'!
abhishek@khaleejtimes.com
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