BJP unable to leverage Sandeshkhali protests

Anti-incumbency against TMC and Mamata Banerjee cannot be discounted. In the end, it all depends on whether she is able to address the deeper structural problems in her party

In West Bengal last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited allegations of sexual exploitation and land grab in Sandeshkhali to launch a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He sought to convert local anger into votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "Har chot ka jawab vote se dena hai (for every wound inflicted, reply with your vote)."

Just as her leadership of the Singur and Nandigram agitations in 2007 and 2008 catapulted Mamata Banerjee to power, ending the 34-year rule of the Left Front in the state, the BJP