When Mamata Banerjee uprooted the Left regime after 34 long years in the state of West Bengal, headlines were worth reading. A leading daily in 2011 ran a lead story captioned “Didi is the new Dada”.
Call it a lack of political faces or reversal of fortunes for the TMC chief at the national level, debates mostly now revolve around how Mamata is most likely the face of the opposition as 2019 nears.
While her diatribes against Modi and Amit Shah have been stinging, the saree clad streetfighter, as we know her, has never refused to admit that more than Bodla (revenge) it is Bodol (change) that counts.
Rumours are also rife that she could very well forge an alliance with her old friends in politics the Congress.
The talks of the new permutations and combinations vis a vis the TMC come at a time when the TMC has achieved a massive victory in the West Bengal civic polls. In a clear clash between the Bharatiya Janata Party, All India Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Indian National Congress, the green brigade had the edge.
In 2017, Mamata who does not mince her words has launched her own version of a Quit India movement which has been termed BJP Quit India. The TMC has charged the BJP of playing politics of divisiveness and hate.
Mamata Banerjee off late has been opening fronts against BJP on many a front. While it is firefighting the Darjeeling unrest, she has challenged the BJP-led NDA government on issues – from demonetisation, implementation of GST, Aadhar, communal violence as well as the Darjeeling unrest.
TMC bagged seats in Panskura and Haldia in East Midnapore district, Nalhati in Birbhum, Buniyadpur in South Dinajpur and Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri districts. It managed a massive win in Durgapur Municipal Corporation in Burdwan West district capturing all 43 wards, besides Cooper’s Camp where it won all the 12 seats.
Interestingly BJP has emerged as the main challenger to the ruling dispensation by bagging six seats in three municipalities. Left led by CPIM and Congress have faced an absolute drubbing. With Panchayat polls scheduled to take place in 2018, these results assume significance.
Compared to 2012, when these bodies had last voted, the Trinamool vote jumped significantly.
A nationwide survey and civic body elections in some West Bengal districts have thrown up the point that Mamata is the most popular chief minister in India pushing Bihar’s Nitish Kumar down to the second spot followed by UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Interestingly, Modi’s toughest rival seems to be Mamata.
In West Bengal, Mamata’s appeal cuts across religious and social lines. Interestingly, even the urban Bengali bhadralok — staunchly Leftist have started tilting towards Didi say analysts in editorials.
Coming close on heels of TMC making inroads in the Darjeeling hills, where the party made significant gains winning the Mirik municipality, its performance in all the seven civic bodies, spread across north and south Bengal, is another feather in its cap .
Post verdict, Didi recently said. “If a party loses its ideology, it loses everything. CPI(M)-Congress have lost everything.”
Mamata is known to switch affiliations – from centrist Congress to right wing National Democratic Alliance and so on! She used the Congress card to oust the left back in 2011. Statistics suggest anti-incumbency has worked in the state only twice in the last 39 years – in 1977 and then in 2011.
While there are very few opposition faces who stand a chance in the gladiatorial ring of 2019, whether Mamata rises to the occasion and strikes only time will tell. Till then the nation watches if Didi’s newfound winning streak helps her stand out in the herd.
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