A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO BENGAL ELECTIONS
The Bengal election season has begun in full swing. At an event to commemorate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary, the political tensions played out with chief minister Mamata Banerjee refusing to speak.
This week, we recommend Snigdhendu Bhattacharya’s Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment .A former journalist with the Hindustan Times, Bhattacharya traces the remarkable rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state to the cultural work done by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the concerted organisation-building efforts of the party, the role of former Trinamool Congress leaders who have now switched ranks to the BJP, the carefully constructed anti-incumbency sentiment in the state — aided by Banerjee’s mistakes, and places it within the larger context of the state’s history and demographics. For a quick glimpse into the key electoral battle of 2021, the book is a useful guide.