Bengal boomerang: How Mamata's overreach helped create her toughest rival

In defeat, Mamata Banerjee must ask herself why her world lies in ruins around her feet

As Suvendu Adhikari prepares to take on a crucial role in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led West Bengal government, many of Mamata Banerjee’s supporters would do well to recall a conversation at a Cabinet meeting of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) many years ago.

 

Ms Banerjee had just thrown a tantrum, got up, and left the meeting. Exasperated, a minister exclaimed: “What is wrong with Mamata!”

 

It was a rhetorical question but Pranab Mukherjee, who was present, chose to answer it. He took off his glasses, polished them, put them back on, and said slowly: “If someone thinks she’s a better poet than Rabindranath Tagore, a better (music composer) than Beethoven, and a better painter than Leonardo da Vinci, then everything is a problem.”

 

It was Mamata’s overreach, and hers alone, that drove Suvendu out of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) into the arms of the BJP.

 

His area of influence is south Bengal. His father, Sisir Adhikari, a Congressman, was a force to reckon with and was a minister in the Manmohan Singh government. In the region of Contai and Tamluk, dominated by the Left, Congress flag flew defiantly. As the Left empire crumbled, Nandigram hastened its collapse and it was Suvendu Adhikari who led the protest against the Left’s “land grabbing”.

 

Recognising his potential, Mamata made him president of the TMC youth wing and the party’s observer for Jangalmahal, at the time in the grip of Maoist groups. In less than five years, the TMC was able to gouge political space from both the Congress and the Left, as well as regain the trust of the youth, who were drifting into Left-wing extremism.

 

His rise was impressive. In 2009, Suvendu was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk, defeating Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongman Lakshman Seth by 172,000 votes. He retained the Tamluk parliamentary constituency, defeating the same party’s Ibrahim Ali in 2014.

 

In 2016, the TMC fielded him in the Assembly election from Nandigram. He was pitted against Abdul Kadir Sheikh, joint candidate of the Left Front and the Congress. Suvendu won, getting over 67 per cent of the vote. After his spectacular win, Mamata made him minister of transport. In 2018, he was also given charge of environment. But she was getting wary of his rise. Besides, she had her own succession plan and it did not involve Suvendu. But she could not ignore his proven political work, either, so a parallel organisation, TMC Juba, was created and her nephew Abhishek was chosen to head it. Later, she dissolved the TMC Juba and the TMC’s youth wing was resurrected: Once again under Abhishek. Suvendu was used to grow the party, but he was never allowed into Mamata’s inner circle.

 

Nor did he particularly want to be counted as a courtier: As member of the Legislative Assembly, he made it a point never to spend the night in Kolkata. He would drive 200 km every day from his constituency to the state Capital, sometimes reaching home at 1 am and leaving early morning again to go to work.

 

The trust deficit between the chief minister and her most important minister became evident. He once observed: “I was transport minister, but Mamata ran the ministry.”

 

The slights kept on piling up. At their heart was the rivalry between Suvendu and Abhishek. During Durga Puja in 2020 the differences seemed irreconcilable. Posters came up all over Suvendu’s constituency at programmes he sponsored. They said: “Dadar anugami (follower of Dada).”

 

Officially, Suvendu denied all knowledge. But there was no TMC banner or picture of Mamata at these meetings. In parallel, TMC leaders travelled to Nandigram and held a meeting where he was dubbed “Mir Jaffer”.

 

Later that year, ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, Suvendu joined the BJP.

 

After she became chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata’s hold on her party was such that leaders knew they needed to indulge her every whim or face a fall from grace.

 

This led to unforeseen consequences as several leaders who thought they had a brilliant political future discovered after they’d been dumped by Mamata — for not listening to Rabindra Sangeet with the right degree of concentration (when Mamata sang) or for not taking medicines she had prescribed (she fancies herself as a doctor), for example.

 

Now, as she stands against the ropes, Mamata needs to take a hard long look at herself, all those she has driven away, and ask herself why her world lies in ruins around her feet.