Bikash

Calcutta, June 2: The man who would be mayor got a first-hand lesson on Calcutta’s problems today. A painful one at that.

Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, the CPM’s candidate for mayor in the June 19 Calcutta Municipal Corporation elections, stepped on to a pothole and broke his right leg.

Bhattacharya, who was campaigning for party candidates in Jadavpur this afternoon, was scheduled to address a public meeting at Ramgarh. While walking to the venue after getting off his car, he failed to notice the pothole.

Party workers helped the former Tripura advocate-general to the nearby Niramoy Nursing Home. There, doctors told the candidate that the shin bone of his right leg had sustained multiple fractures.

“I was supposed to address a rally at Ramgarh. The lane was dark and I did not notice the pothole. I suddenly stumbled and got my leg fractured,” Bhattacharya told The Telegraph when contacted over his cellphone.

“I am indebted to my party colleagues who took me to the nursing home. I might have found it difficult to reach it if I were alone because I could not even stand up.”

Bhattacharya toured his constituency (ward no. 100) this morning and met voters. In the afternoon, he addressed several election meetings for party candidates at various places in south Calcutta.

Asked whether his injury would affect his campaign, Bhattacharya replied: “Not at all. My party will run the campaign and I shall also try to reach out to voters if the doctors allow me to.”

The CPM has been working overtime on Bhattacharya’s campaign, for it realises that having spent many years in Tripura, he may not be well-known to his voters. The injury will now restrict his interaction with the electorate.

His opponent, Trinamul Congress candidate Partha Chatterjee, described Bhattacharya’s accident as unfortunate. “I wish him a speedy recovery,” he said.