Sir,
West Bengal is moving towards a personality clash between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming Assembly elections. Both have evolved as cult figures. With no tall state leaders in Bengal, the BJP has followed this formula of a battle between a regional heavyweight and the BJP mascot Modi, in some states, like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra, and Haryana with mixed success.
While a ‘Modi versus Mamata’ battle may have worked well for the BJP at the Lok Sabha level, it may not be that easy at the state level. For instance, Mamata is not like other regional leaders as she has a method in her working. She has reduced the other opposition parties like the CPI-M and the Congress to near irrelevance in the past decade. Also, she is a fierce street fighter. Besides for more than 45 years, the state has been anti – Centre which might help Mamata.
Mamata’s biggest strength lies in her image as a developmental chief minister, which she had created post-Singur and Nandigram with schemes ranging from Kanyashree or distribution of cycles to the girls of underprivileged families, distribution of rice at a low price, development of roads, etc., During the lockdown, she launched the campaign – Banglar Gorbo Mamata which involves various meetings with voters, workers, and prominent Bengali personalities. The development schemes and her populist image might stand her in good stead.
It is too early to predict the West Bengal election scene as clarity will emerge nearer the polls but violence could be expected. An important issue would be how the public perceives the performance of Mamata government on containing the pandemic Covid, as it is a burning issue.
The BJP had not won any state since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It lost Maharashtra even after emerging the single largest party because of the ego clash between its long time partner Shiv Sena. To its dismay, Sena, NCP, and Congress coalition formed the government. A little ray of sunshine was the fall of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh as BJP installed its chief minister Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan pulling down the Kamal Nath Government. Therefore winning big in Bihar elections was important for the party and winning Bengal will continue its eastward expansion.
K Shankar
New Delhi
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