MAMATA, THE LONE WARRIOR
The Gandhi statue on Mayo Road has been one of the preferred protest sites in Kolkata for political parties and civil society groups. On April 13, Mamata Banerjee chose the venue to mark her dissent against the Election Commission (EC). No war cries, no sloganeering, the West Bengal chief minister sat near the statue for several hours, apparently engrossed in painting. Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders camped some distance away in solidarity.
A day before, when the EC barred her from campaigning for 24 hours for allegedly making provocative remarks during electioneering, a furious Mamata had taken to Twitter to challenge the order as “undemocratic and unconstitutional”. But at the Gandhi statue, she was a picture of restraint. The EC had ticked Mamata off on two counts—for allegedly making a community-specific speech at the temple town of Tarakeswar on April 5 and for allegedly inciting women in Cooch Behar on April 8 to take on CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel, if needed. This wasn’t Mamata’s first run-in with the Commission in this election. The EC had earlier declined to entertain her allegations of electoral malpractices in Boyal on voting day in Nandigram, from where she is contesting against former loyalist Suvendu Adhikari.
TACTICAL MOVE
Fuelling Mamata’s ire was also the EC’s initial inaction on the allegedly inflammatory speeches made by Bengal BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh, Rahul Sinha and Sayantan Basu. To sociologist Prasanta Ray of Kolkata’s Presidency University, Mamata’s dharna at the Gandhi statue was a calculated move. “It appears to be an attempt to deflect the negativity that her belligerence and attacks on institutions such as the EC and CRPF may have created. Those who admire her would feel sympathetic about how she is almost singlehandedly taking on the BJP. This image of a lone fighter helps further endear Mamata to women voters,” says Ray.
The support of politicians such as Jaya Bachchan has also come in handy in crafting Mamata’s ‘lone warrior’ image. Earlier this month, in Kolkata, while announcing her plans to campaign for the TMC, the Samajwadi Party
MP had said: “I have the utmost respect for Mamataji—a single woman fighting against all atrocities. Head broken, leg broken, but they have not been able to break her heart and her brain, and her determination to move ahead and make Bengal one of the best [places] in the world.” Later, Jaya embraced the wheelchair-bound Mamata as the latter bowed her head in gratitude in a striking visual and political statement that echoed the TMC battle cry—‘Bangla nijer meyekei chai (Bengal wants its own daughter)’.
Earlier, TMC MP Saugata Ray had described Mamata’s leg injury, following a purported attack on her in Nandigram in March, as symbolic of her struggles to stand her political ground against the BJP and its government at the Centre.
WOOING WOMEN
The TMC has been seizing every opportunity to highlight what it casts as the BJP’s brute masculinity on display throughout the poll campaign. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Didiii-o-Didiii’ jibe at Mamata has prompted TMC MP Mahua Moitra to compare him with ‘rock-er chhele’, a common reference in Bengal to roadside Romeos who catcall at women. “This is a PM sitting here chortling [at] a sitting chief minister in the cheapest, basest way possible,” Moitra told a TV channel. It was followed by minister for women and child development Shashi Panja dubbing Modi’s taunt an “insult to the women of the state”.
Women constitute nearly half of Bengal’s 100 million population and are a key beneficiary of the Mamata government’s Rs 12,000 crore a year welfare package. It includes stipends for higher education of girls and a dole for the wedding ceremonies of adult girls. Besides making gender equality an issue—the Swasthya Sathi health cards are issued to families in the name of the matriarch—the TMC has been raking up incidents of atrocities on women in BJP-ruled states, such as the Hathras rape case in Uttar Pradesh last September.
Even as the TMC is hitting out at the BJP for its distasteful attacks on Mamata, the opposition party has been devising new tactics in this no-holds-barred war, most recently the leak of purported conversations between Mamata and TMC leaders and workers. The first audio clip was released by the BJP just days before the April 1 voting in Nandigram and allegedly featured Mamata seeking the help of former loyalist Pralay Pal—now with the BJP—to win the assembly seat. In another clip, Mamata is allegedly instructing Partha Pratim Roy, the TMC candidate from Sitalkuchi, to rake up the death of four people in CRPF firing on April 10. Interestingly, the TMC did not describe the audio clips as fake. Rather, Mamata blasted the BJP for snooping and invading her privacy. “They are eavesdropping on our everyday conversations, tapping our phone calls. I will order a CID probe and will not spare anyone involved,” she said.
BEHEMOTH BJP
Mamata’s party can hardly match the BJP’s poll machinery, whether in terms of money or manpower. While Union ministers and BJP chief ministers and MPs are holding 10-12 rallies a day, Mamata, the only star campaigner in the TMC, at best manages three or four events. Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee is addressing two to three rallies a day. Mamata does feel the dearth of star campaigners. “Didi was back on the campaign trail just four days after her leg injury as she felt that not a single day could be wasted in the battle against the BJP,” says Purnendu Bose, a former TMC minister.
The BJP’s strategy has been to match Mamata rally for rally and prevent the TMC from dominating the media coverage. Mamata has raised serious questions on whether the prime minister can be allowed to campaign on days of voting in Bengal and reveal decisions taken in cabinet meetings. On April 3 in Hooghly district, Modi assured Bengal’s estimated 7 million farmers that if voted to power, the BJP will clear their dues worth Rs 18,000 under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.
Modi and Shah have been asserting that Mamata’s reign is over. Modi remarked in South 24 Parganas on April 1 that Mamata’s body language showed she had sensed her impending defeat. Shah, after every voting phase, makes new seat projections for the BJP. He exhorts crowds at rallies to give Didi a befitting farewell. “Politics is all about perception and the BJP has been building one that it’s set to storm to power in Bengal,” says Sobhanlal Datta Gupta, former professor of political science at Calcutta University. “This helps woo voters, particularly the undecided lot. The BJP has been trying to net this segment of the electorate.”
Didi, on her part, is leaving no stone unturned in dubbing the BJP unworthy of ruling Bengal—whether it’s her claim of poor governance in BJP-ruled Tripura, talk of riots in Gujarat, women’s safety, the looming threat of the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) for Muslims, or the ‘cultural invasion’ of Bengal and threat to ‘Bangaliyana’.
“Mamata is stirring up sentiments and making a lastditch effort. Against the BJP’s promise of ‘double-engine’ government is her assurance of social welfare largesse if the TMC is voted back to power,” says Ray. The TMC’s ultimate pitch is that the people of Bengal have the choice between Didi, their ‘paharadar (sentinel)’, and the BJP’s ‘dadagiri (bullying)’. The countdown to counting day (May 2) is on. ■
MAMATA’S PARTY IS SEIZING EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO CORNER THE BJP. PM MODI’S ‘DIDIII-O-DIDIII’ JIBE INVITED A SHARP RETORT FROM TMC MP MAHUA MOITRA