In an Epic Battle Mamata Trounces Modi

 

 

 

 

In an Epic Battle Mamata Trounces Modi

Of the four States and a Union Territory that went to polls in March-April 2021, the electoral battle in West Bengal was the fiercest in the democratic history of India. Never did Indian democracy witness such a vitriolic election campaign as seen in West Bengal. It was one woman army facing a formidable foe that used the might of the State.

The fight was directly between Mamata Banerjee-the tigress of Bengal- and Narendra Modi, considered invincible leader by his supporters.  She fought the toughest –do or die battle- in her political career, spanning over four decades, with her back to the wall. Modi and Amit Shah made 38 trips to Bengal, addressing as many as 51 election rallies, with enormous resources and institutional might at their disposal. They were interested in capturing Bengal at any cost. And “money flowed into the state like water in the Hooghly when it is in spate and the BJP’s campaign was like the German blitzkrieg during the Second World War. The idea was to create an impression that West Bengal was up for grabs (FPJ Editorial, 3/5).”

It was an unequal fight. But Mamata fought single handed with grit and gumption, addressing the rallies in a wheel chair with a wounded leg, and taking on the Modi-Shah juggernaut. She has a history of a fire fighter, taking on the political streams-the Left, the Centre and the Right.  In 1984, banking  on the people’s sympathy for the  Congress, following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, she fought the Lok Sabha election on the Congress Ticket and defeated the tallest CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee, earning the nickname of a ‘giant-killer’. She walked out of the Congress and founded the Trinamul Congress (TMC) in 1998; took to the streets; risked her life; received blows and serious injuries; relentlessly traveled across the State and built a network of colleagues and workers who shared her zeal to take on the Left, ultimately wresting power from the Left, after 34 years of its rule, in 2011. And she wrote the Bengal’s political grammar. And ten years after trouncing the Left, she has now, in an epic battle, trounced Modi- a formidable political force that any regional leader ever faced- demonstrating the fighting spirit, overcoming all the hurdles, proving all pollsters and political pundits wrong.

Mamata scripted a history.  The factors that contributed to her landslide victory:

Engineering the defections: Taking the turncoats of the TMC into the BJP has boomeranged.  The BJP engineered some high profile defections and looked poised to consolidate its gains. The people who were considered a liability by the TMC -the ‘rotten garbage’- were admitted into the BJP. Some 140 TMC leaders, and around 40 legislators, joined the BJP since 2017. And many have left the TMC and joined the BJP on the eve of election. To many onlookers and political analysts, the BJP takeover of West Bengal sounded a fait accompli, going by its record of winning 18 Lok Sabha seats (as against 22 by the TMC) in 2019.  However, barring three, all the defectors have lost the election. The voters rejected the people who betrayed the TMC, as Mamata called them ‘traitors’

Modi Vs Mamata: The BJP made the election in Bengal as a prestige issue- turning it into a contest between Modi and Mamata, with Modi investing all his political capital to wrest power from Mamata. He conducted an extensive high decibel campaign in the State challenging her, ignoring the surge in corona virus. His taunting her with the ‘Did,ooh,Didi’ chant at political rallies went against the progressive spirit of Bengal. It was perceived as an outrage by the people, particularly the women of Bengal. And anyone who listened, on TV channels, his mocking her, rally after rally, found it offensive and felt consterned that he should be so insensitive, lacking in civility, towards his political rival, who happened to be the Chief Minister of one of the largest and strategically located Indian states, injured and campaigning in a wheel chair, forgetting the dignity of the High Office he is holding.  And then the BJP’s  state President Dilip Ghosh’s asking her to ‘wear a Bermuda’ if she wanted to ‘show her leg’  and  Yogi Adityanath promising to set up ‘anti-Romeo squads’ in Bengal  to protect women  – all this hurt the people.  As the Women’s rights activist Anuradha Kapoor summed up: “During the campaign, the PM ridiculed our CM. The State BJP President used misogynist comments…Such masculinity was called out by women in Bengal.” The election results were a hard hitting reply to mocking Mamata.

Limits of Polarisation: The BJP’s attempt to polarise the Hindus by raising the slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ etc. at the rallies did not succeed.  Amit Shah’s promise to implement the CAA to polarise the Hindus, has made the Muslims to consolidate behind the TMC, moving away from the Congress and the Left.  Mamata reached out to both the Hindu and the Muslim communities. She countered the religious polarization through the welfare measures, building solid support base cuttings across the communities. The state government had launched more than 60 welfare schemes during her rule, benefiting all sections of population, particularly the girls and the women and the marginalized.  

The TMC won 213 seats (out of 290), more than its tally in 2016.  The BJP’s vote share dipped to 38% as against 41% in 2019 Lok Sabha election, while that of the TMC increased to 48% from 44%- ten per cent higher than the BJP. The heavily polarising rhetoric by the BJP has alienated the Hindus from it, resulting in dip in its vote share. The party failed to retain its Hindu vote share of 57%  secured in 2019, with the TMC increasing Hindu support from 32% in 2019 to 39% this time- seven percentage shift from the BJP.

Amit Shah played a mind game by repeatedly asserting that the BJP would win 200+ seats, which the people saw through. Mamata turned the tables against her opponents by espousing Bengali 'asmita', invoking Bengalis self-respect; reciting the sacred texts to hammer the point that she too was a Hindu, like Modi and his saffron colleagues. The BJP MPs-Swapan Dasgupta,Babul Supriyo and Locket Chatterjee- who contested the Assembly elections were defeated. 

It was a Brand Mamata against BJP’s Hindu consolidation.  As Mrinal Pande says, Mamata’s image to millions of Bengalis was that of a Durga- “Mahishasur Mardini, the warrior goddess, who managed to vanquish the demon whom the male gods had tried but failed to defeat.” She emerged as an archetypal female warrior.  As the voting pattern shows, the Hindus did not consolidate behind the BJP. Its efforts to forge a Hindu monolith in Bengal failed to recognize that Hindus remain divided along lines of class, caste, ideology and sect.  It may appeal to a segment of the Hindu population but does not find resonance with majority of the Hindus, who are not communal.

Partisan role of the Election Commission: The Election Commission was partial throughout the elections.  As Prashant Kishore, the political strategist of the TMC who scripted its stunning victory, said in an interview on NDTV, "I have never seen a more partial Election Commission…From allowing the use of religion to scheduling the poll and bending the rules, the ECI did everything to help the BJP” and acted as  an “extension of the BJP.”  Stretching the election into eight phases, making it a long grueling exercise during the pandemic; inability to enforce the model code of conduct; failure to prevent the use of religion; applying different rules; and unwillingness to ensure the appropriate covid behavior at the election rallies and prevent the abuse of state machinery—all this has dented the credibility and image of the Election Commission as an independent and impartial agency entrusted with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections, inviting the charge of being partial to the ruling dispensation. The TMC wrote hundreds of letters to the Commission complaining about various acts of omission and commission, which remained unanswered. The people saw all this.

The result of the Bengal election has shown that Modi is not invincible. That a determined woman, with fire in the belly, could defeat the biggest political party, neutralising its most powerful election machinery, is a history by itself. Mamata has won a stunning victory,with money,logistics,central investigating agencies, and carpet bombing through media, all staked against her.  She has shown that it is possible to construct a narrative that can take the Modi- Shah juggernaut head on.  In a David-Goliath fight to the finish the feisty, diminutive Mamata had the last laugh.