Trinamool Congress leader sang Rabindra Sangeet in Gujarati to Bhawanipore voters
On the occasion of the 158th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, a Trinamool Congress lawmaker found an interesting way to reach Gujarati voters in Bhawanipore in the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat.
Ashim Kumar Basu, Councillor of Ward 70 in Kolkata, was campaigning for the party candidate when he started singing Rabindra Sangeet, in Gujarati, to the assembled crowd.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Basu said, "My message is what Tagore said. Everyone should be united. There should be no bloodshed (because) we all are one. I am a Bengali (but) I do feel from (my) heart that I am also a Gujarati".
Kolkata South votes on May 19, in the seventh and final phease of the election. The seat is currently held by TMC leader Subrata Bakshi.
However, the party has fielded a different candidate in this election - former Congress leader Mala Roy. She will be up against CPI(M) leader Nandini Mukherjee, the Congress' Mita Chakraborty and the BJP's Chandra Kumar Bose.
The Kolkata South seat is a Trinamool stronghold; it has voted for Mamata Banerjee's party in every election since 1998. However, given that Ms Banerjee, who traditionally contests from here, will once again not stand as a candidate, the Congress is keen to re-take the seat it last won in 1996.
Will Mr Basu's attempt at Gujrati-language Rabindra Sangeet earn the TMC extra votes in this area? Well, for a start it did impress some voters.
Sujata Desai, a school teacher, said, "Itna acche se gaya aur bhav bahut tha jo hriday tak pahuchta hai. ("He sang so well and with such emotion that it touched the heart.").
Narendra Kapadia, a voter from the region, said, "You may know Gujarati, you may not know Gujarati but if the work is good, it is the work that speaks. The language of the work (is) thicker than the actual language".
The constituency has only 2.3 per cent Gujarati population but the community makes up a massive 38 per cent of the population in Bhawanipore.