The effectiveness of propaganda machinery is critical in the outcome of any battle. The election battle fought in West Bengal, hence, is no different. The army of software specialists, changing and morphing pictures, altering voices and audios to match their intended goals are getting stronger and bold. The removal of draconian Article 66 A in the Indian Information Technology Act 2000 has only unleashed a deluge of memes and caricatures, which could have earlier landed the author or the forwarder in prison.
Though some of such morphed creations are harmless and funny, some are mere disinformation spread to create chaos in the opposition rank and files. Every party has now an equal and powerful ‘fake-news busters’ clan, who sieve the sands to dig out to disprove the opponents’ claims. However, by the time they hit the nail on the fake news, some might have crossed thousands of hands speedily in geometric proportions.
Be that as it may, the State and its Strategist are sticking on to TMC comfortably winning 204-211 seats, the BJP winning 80-90 seats, Left, Congress and ISF Morcha making less than 5 seats. The BJP, on the other hand, is confident of scoring a +200 score.
If BJP wins, it will be a plank of ‘Poriborton,’ or change, the words Mamata used to dislodge the Left Front Government in 2011. We have only to wait and see if the tall promises are fulfilled, that the State and the Centre, after aeons, will be ruled by the same party. If the TMC is proven correct even with a simple majority, we would have to perhaps see tumultuous scenes of continued challenges in meeting the promises, as the Centre and the State will resume their unending battles.
The belly fire of the ISF chief, Abbasi, seems to have extinguished. Many groups have ditched the ISF, taking a safer recourse of going with the time tested Mamata. The minorities, however, are likely to vote ‘en masse,’ for the chief negotiator Md. Salim, who scripted the alliance but otherwise had no chance to enter the Legislative Assembly. The Left, Congress and ISF’s Sanjukta Morcha is stillborn and has no life now or anytime in the future. None other than Owaisi has realized this and moved away from the loss-making public enterprise.
On Nandigram, it’s a battle between Mamata’s Block 1 Vs. Suvendu Adhikari’s Block 2. Even then, I predict a 5-10000 votes win for Suvendu. Will Didi throw her bravado to the wind and file her nomination in a safe seat like, say, Rash Behari Constituency? The last date for filing the nomination is 7th April 2021.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépde Voix
