Nine years ago, I posted with a caption the rise and fall of Mamata. Much of what I wrote nine years ago still fits like a T. However, Mamata did not fall but returned with an even greater majority in her third Assembly election round of 2021, despite serious charges of corruption against her government. The hiccups investigations never went for a closure and dragged on, apparently to keep Didi and her party under pressure.
Mamata’s efforts to stretch her influence beyond the borders of West Bengal into states like Goa, Meghalaya, or Tripura have all flopped, dashing her dreams to pip for the prime minister’s post after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Her need to prove yet again her supremacy in West Bengal, therefore, has become a necessity. The on-and-off game with the INDI alliance is nothing new either. She is unto herself, crushing her opponents to the wall while doing a hard bargain for seats. Today, she announced she would fight alone, discarding the Congress party.
The decision may have little impact on a national basis but more than that, it could have far-reaching implications for her party itself. I believe that her shunning the Congress party is a hardline manoeuvre, and eventually she will be forced to take the Congress party as an ally in the elections. The INC has been demanding five seats, and the TMC has offered only two. In a process of rethinking for a greater cause, if TMC yields 4 seats to Congress and the latter wins only 2 seats, the loss of 2 seats could be a better option for TMC as she may get the money and additional cadre power from the Congress, with both parties equally loathing the BJP and its leader PM Modi. Her discarding the Congress will force the latter to team up with the Left and a repeat of the triangular contest will overall benefit the BJP with the division of votes.
Mamata in 2024 is weaker than the CM in 2021. Many stalwarts from her party, including two important cabinet ministers, are in jail. A do-or-die situation for the investigating agencies under an unforgiving BJP may lead to more leaders being charged as the investigations gain new momentum. The tall promises of jobs no longer sound as credible as hundreds of eligible youths have been fasting or protesting on the roadside for years. It is sad to see that the Calcutta High Court has become an alternative constant, monitoring and reprimanding the state for its many acts of omission and commission.
The Ram Mandir and a generally positive performance have boosted the BJP party’s chances. The cow belt will ensure his party’s return, while there was never any unity among the opposition in the first place, save for photo and pakora sessions. Merely ‘Modi hatao,’ remove Modi, cannot return the opposition alliance, a few who are history sheeters like Lalu Prasad, or corrupt-to-the-core like the DMK party.
Amid the frenzy of Ayodhya’s Ram temple consecration, Didi did the best she could. She trumped up a reason, Sampriti, or love and attachment march, teaming up all religious leaders, many from minority communities, and walked 5 km, beginning from Kali temple, covering a gurudwara, a darga, a mosque, and a church. I was waiting for the day when she would walk, despising the corrupt leaders in her party and the scam-tainted few in her core team who have sullied her name and her party’s image. My hopes were belied when her party MP, Shatabti Roy, went on the air to say that their Birbhum leader, Anubrata Mondal, jailed in Tihar, would be rehabilitated with full honours upon his release and return.
I wonder: how long could Did exclude herself from the ignominy of her corrupt leaders? She has failed the promised Poriborton, or transformation, test!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
