Mamata shows Modi the door

West Bengal was a prestige issue for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this Lok Sabha election. He, his Home Minister Amit Shah, his senior cabinet ministers, and star campaigners were busy conducting extravagant roadshows. Modi was practically shuttling between Bengal and Delhi to win the election. While the country was reeling under price rises and unemployment, Modi was thumping his chest with his guarantees that cover a wide range of promises across sectors, citizens, and schemes.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and Chief Minister of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, in her campaign, ripped into Modi over his so-called guarantees. She said: “Modi’s guarantees are 420 (fraudulent). It is a shock of 440 volts if you touch them.” If guarantees are issued and are not fulfilled, despite an ad blitz, it isn’t a guarantee, she added. Mamata also mocked Modi’s 400 paar slogan. Despite the BJP’s personal attack on the chief minister and her nephew Abhishek on rampant corruption and the law-and-order situation (Sandeshkhali was the burning issue), Mamata’s narrative portrayed Bengal’s interest and propagated how the Centre was denying legitimate funds and benefits to the people of the state, amid the country’s soaring unemployment rate. And in a smart move, her party also reminded voters of the numerous welfare schemes provided by the government over the years.

However, the BJP failed to address larger issues like unemployment and price rise Even the top leaders of the party failed to defend Mamata’s allegation of non-disbursement of legitimate central funds to the state. Instead, the BJP decided to focus on local issues like Sandeshkhali and women’s safety, which is far better than BJP-controlled Uttar Pradesh. On top of this, the weak leadership in the state caused a debacle in BJP’s performance in West Bengal.

The political shrewdness of Mamata Banerjee has brought her party a resounding victory. Some of the welfare and social schemes of the West Bengal government, like Lakshmir Bhandar, Swasthya Sathi, Kanyashree, and Duare Sarkar, have paid electoral dividends. Lakshmir Bhandar provides financial help to women from economically weaker sections, including SC/ST, of Rs1,000-Rs1,200 per month, and Swasthya Sathi, the health scheme, is very popular, helping the party’s outstanding performance to win 29 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress and Left alliance in the state failed to make any impact in this election. Congress won one seat in Malda, while the CPIM could not open its account. Winning 29 seats, TMC now has the third-largest representation in parliament. TMC has also joined the united opposition INDIA, which has demonstrated an impressive performance in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP, which had set the ambitious target of grabbing 35 seats, won only 12 seats compared to 18 seats in the last Lok Sabha election. Fear of the impact of CAA (Citizen Amendment Act) & NRC is also a reason for the BJP’s poor show. TMC received a 45.77 per cent vote share in the election, which increased by over 2 per cent since 2019. The BJP’s vote share sank to 38.73 per cent compared to 40.6 per cent five years ago.

Bengal clearly rejected Modi’s strategy on religious polarisation. He reportedly used all the government machinery at his disposal to grab Bengal. He fell flat on his divisive ideology. What he did not realise is that wooing voters of Bengal with showmanship, muscle, and money power will not work. Traditionally, communal harmony is always given importance in Bengal. A political analyst remarked that everyone realised the TMC was the only party that could stand up to the BJP. A source says the BJP spent almost R1,400 crore on the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal, which yielded no results.

Post results, the fissure in the state unit of the BJP is now out in the open. Senior leaders of the state, Dilip Ghosh, Sukanta Majumder, and Soumitra Khan, openly criticised the selection of candidates and constituencies. Their target is Suvendu Adhikari, the opposition leader in the state assembly. He was given a free hand by the central leadership to conduct the election.

The TMC has achieved a thumping majority. The party should now introspect and address two major issues that troubled it in the election: first, corruption, and second, the internal feud between the old guard and the young Turks. It must stop pretending all is well.

According to a local businessman, in the last 10 years the corruption level in the TMC has increased manifold. People now expect the Chief Minister to crack the whip and weed out culprits, streamline the organisation, and adopt the right philosophy for an image makeover. The time has come to uplift the state economy and create more jobs.