West Bengal breathes politics. This has been so for many decades after the Communists won power and remained in the saddle for 34 years. The ouster of the Reds from power only signaled a more aggressive kind of politics, this time at the hands of street-smart Mamata Banerjee. Having won power in 2011, her effort thereafter has not only been to retain power but also seek a “promotion” and seize power in Delhi. It meant a direct fight with the BJP which, on its part, is seeking to outwit the chief minister in her own turf. The eruption of violence in Kolkata on Tuesday in the course of a road show held by BJP chief Amit Shah is a pointer to the viciousness of the battle that lies ahead.
Mamata Banerjee is raising the hopes of Bengalis by projecting a possibility that she could head the new government at the Centre after the LS polls. A Gujarat chief minister becoming the Prime Minister set a precedent, though he was a nominee of two strong entities at the national level – the BJP and the RSS. Mamata Banerjee or her Trinamool Congress has little support outside West Bengal. Yet, the fighter that she is, Banerjee is leaving no stone unturned to reach her goals. She had managed to decimate the once-powerful Communists and drag to her side sizeable support bases of the Congress, including the Muslims who form about 30 per cent of the state’s population.
At the same time, it is a debatable point as to how much her style of politics and constant fights with the Centre are of help to West Bengal. The long years of Left rule had hurt the state badly. The Communist policy was to fight the Congress ruling the Centre, without being mindful of its consequences. What was once the capital of the British Raj, West Bengal has, through progressive Communist misadventures, become one of the poorest states in India. Congress governments in the past had looked the other way, and the Modi government too was not of much help to West Bengal due to the aggressive postures of Banerjee. Modi’s soothing words about “Didi” are likely an attempt at camouflaging his hidden anger over her abrasive postures towards him.
There is less chance of Mamata becoming PM even in this round. Her hopes were high at a time when the Congress was down and out, and Rahul Gandhi was still shaping up. That’s old story now. Yet, she can still fish in troubled waters.