Apropos the report, "Mamata launches 2016 poll campaign" (July 21). Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched her 2016 Assembly poll campaign by predicting victory for her party and promising supporters a bigger rally next year. Calling the three Opposition parties in the state - the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - "ha-ja-ba-ra-la", a Bengali phrase meaning 'in a state of disarray' that appears in the book of nonsense verse by Sukumar Roy, Banerjee indicated they would be no match for her party in the polls.
BJP President Amit Shah seems to have given the Assembly polls a walkover by directing the party's state unit to focus on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This indicates an underlying bonhomie between the BJP and TMC. The BJP has been unable to pass important bills in the Upper House and the TMC has been embarrassed by the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation investigation into the Saradha scam. Banerjee has been diplomatic in her speeches. She has criticised the BJP's Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana, but avoided taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name.
The state BJP, which saw its vote share rise to 17 per cent in the last Lok Sabha polls, will hope to improve its fortunes on the back of this bonhomie with the TMC.
On the other hand, an exodus from the CPI(M) and Congress to the TMC is in full swing. The Left Front's inability to form a pre-poll alliance with the Congress only bolsters Banerjee's expectation about her party's showing in the Assembly polls.
Buddhadev Nandi West Bengal
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