BARASAT: Mrinal Debnath wants to give back to a country that provided him both refuge and later a scholarship to study medicine. The BJP candidate for Barasat , which goes to the polls on Sunday said he would be voting for the first time this year. “I tried earlier, during the CPM years, but every time I went to vote, I was told somebody had voted for me.”After 32 years as a practising psychiatrist in the Caribbean, Debnath returned to Kolkata after the CPI(M) lost power to Mamata in 2011. “But Mamata’s rule is worse than CPI(M)’s. We thought things would change for the better. That has not happened.” Talking to TOI, Debnath said he had crossed over from then east Pakistan in 1964 as a child, separated from his family after communal riots there. “I was a penniless refugee. A teacher took pity on me and sent me to school. Since I was bright, I got a scholarship from the government to study medicine at Calcutta National Medical College .”Debnath, like all other BJP candidates here, is campaigning on Narendra Modi ’s virtues, targeting TMC’s alleged corruption and other ills.Barasat is a unique constituency which straddles the high-tech futuristic Rajarhat/New Town, the solidly upper middle class Bidhannagar, as well as the rural farmlands and bheris (fish culture ponds) of interior Madhyamgram and Deganga.Mamata unshackled investments after she came to power in 2011. So in the past eight years, Rajarhat/New Town has turned into a bustling tech city, with many tech majors having established themselves there. Mamata can be accused of not doing enough, but she has started the process. So it’s unclear whether BJP’s promise of fast-tracking growth here will swing the votes towards them. The upper middle class area of Bidhannagar (Salt Lake City) has a fair number of non-Bengali voters who may find it easier to switch to the BJP.In the more rural areas, TMC holds undisputed sway. From Barasat town to Madhyamgram, one can easily see signs of rising incomes mainly from the real estate sector and remittances.In the tiny bylanes of Kazipara, is a house overlooking a field, we find Mohammed Majid Ali, better known as Majid Master. The history-sheeter and organisation boss for the CPI(M) in north 24 Parganas was hounded out of Sashan, his home, after Mamata assumed power in Bengal.During the CPI(M) years, Majid Master was a legendary figure, the undisputed boss of the lucrative bheris, a ‘hatchet man’ with numerous murder and terror cases against him.Yet today, he stays out of sight. Having spent years evading arrest and Mamata’s so called goons, Majid Master returned to university (he had risen in the CPI(M) ranks through a teachers’ association). “I have just got my second MA in English literature,” he told TOI, taking time off to chat about politics in Bengal. Soft-spoken but inscrutable, Majid Master confessed to being a “Nehru Bhakt”. “I regard him as the architect of modern India.”He has little sympathy left for his old party. “They have moved away from their ideals,” he said. Criticising the ill-fated CPI(M)-Congress alliance for the state polls in 2016, Majid Master said dismissively, “That was only for short-term gains. It couldn’t have sustained.”“Despite the fact that the TMC has targeted me for years, I will vote for them, because Modi has to be removed.”Whether Majid Master exerts himself or not, Barasat may see TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar winning again.