Return of the Didi

In the run-up to the 2006 West Bengal assembly elections, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s clarion call was: “Now or Never” to topple the Left Front government. That didn’t work then; but in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, she actually has the best chance of shaking the foundations of the citadel of the Left in Bengal. This election is crucial because political analysts feel its results might lead to the fall of the Left Front government in the state after 34 years, in the 2011 assembly election.

From CPI(M) veteran Jyoti Basu to party general secretary Prakash Karat, every Left leader will publicly admit that the election will be very tough for the Left. The Singur and Nandigram episodes have created major dent in the Left’s traditional stronghold of rural votebank, antagonised Muslims and angered urban intellectuals. In the run up to the polls, Banerjee has mopped up a large number of Panchayat posts, municipal bodies and an assembly seat in its by-election.

She is now trying to formalise an alliance with the Congress after the two sides witnessed cohesion of their voters at the ground level against the Left during the last few years. The top Congress leadership has also signaled that it has no problem in giving her the lion’s share of seats in Bengal politics. She has been given an upperhand and even her request, that as a ‘national leader’ she will not hold negotiations with the state level leaders of the Congress has been accepted. So, not only she is enjoying an unprecedented mass support, but Congress too has given her a lot of liberty to lead the anti-Left force.

In the seat sharing arrangement, Banerjee, however, had tried to ensure that her victory comes not only by diminishing the Left but also at the cost of the Congress. Her choice of seats for the Congress (expect the ones where Sonia Gandhi’s party have sitting MPs) are exactly the bastions of the Left for many years. Like Bankura, Arambagh, Jhargram, etc. the Congress leaders are panicked as the acceptance of this formula would marginalise their organisation in a major part of the state. Hard negotiations are going on between the two sides but the Congress managers claim the alliance will definitely happen.

It’s now or never for Mamata Banerjee. If she can’t capitalise this opportunity, she has no one else to blame but herself.