Lok Sabha polls: Secrecy makes it tough to gauge the real mood in Bengal

Secrecy and caution are hardly attributes linked to West Bengal but things can change during elections. Multiple people across the state gave this tip: When they (voters) say they are supporting the Trinamool, don’t believe them. And when they say they are backing the BJP, even then don’t trust them. 

The overwhelming secrecy made it tough to gauge the real mood across the region from Bongaon on the India-Bangladesh border to Palta in Barrackpore and Singur in Hooghly. But, excited audiences at crowded rallies did drop their guard at times to reveal that the BJP as an entity has entered the mind space of Bengal’s Bengalis who couldn’t think beyond the Left till not too long ago. The swing to the Right in the general narrative has taken place. That may or may not translate into seats though. Pundits say the vote share of the BJP will rise from about 17 per cent in the state, but its seat tally may be arrested in a single digit. It got two of 42 in 2014, against the TMC’s 34. The caveat: Even psephologists find it tough to predict this time.

At a time when ‘who will win how many seats’ is all you can think of, spotting Ruchir Sharma, global investor and writer of Democracy on the Road, on the same flight to track Bengal polls was a surprise. With that start, Bengal was never short on surprise. Whether it’s a passerby leaving his errands to spend hours giving a guided tour of Singur, supposed to be a Tata township and now a large piece of barren land, or that waiter at a prominent hotel serving free dessert and tea after dinner just like that. 

It was a surprise also to find that the popularity of the modest muri (puffed rice) was still at a high cutting across political parties. Derek O’Brien, the national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP from the Trinamool, names just muri, when asked what chief minister Mamata Banerjee likes to eat. And yes, the Left continues with hot muri snacks along with green chillies and samosa, followed by tea. The evening tradition of muri for all in newspaper packets was in full play at the CPI(M) headquarters in Kolkata’s Alimuddin Street as this reporter waited to meet Mohd Salim, sitting MP from Raiganj. 

Salim believes that the CPI(M), which had the second-highest vote share but only two seats in 2014, would gain seats. The campaign and the mood in the state didn’t exactly show that trend. ‘’High-pitch campaigns are about your money power,’’ he pointed out. And there’s little doubt that the Trinamool and the BJP were playing the game with abandon.

At the Petrapole customs station in Bongaon border, officials offered tea and biscuits along with their guarded views on whether the saffron wave was for real. A few steps out of the customs office, another group of functionaries at the check post, where Wagah-like change of guards had just finished, wanted to know in a hostile undertone what the discussion was all about. Clearly, it was time to leave.