West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee does not believe in ducking, if 150-plus kmph bouncer is bowled to her. She would surely try to hook or pull the delivery out of the ground for a six, even if there is a risk of being hit on the head or upper part of the body. It is another thing that this time she was hit on the ankle by a yorker, perhaps while playing on the front-foot.
What is interesting is that the bowlers of the rival teams never hesitate in regularly throwing bouncers. No doubt many of them proved to be ineffective or are despatched to the spectators’ gallery. On some occasions a miscued hook lands in the hand of fielders in the deep as it happened in May 2019 or May 2004 when her party could win only 22 and one seat respectively in the Lok Sabha polls.
Thus, out of the four states and one Union Territory going to poll West Bengal is occupying maximum attention of the national media.
As the leaders of both the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party believe in aggressive politics, much depends on whether the pitch in West Bengal supports the fast bowlers or not. Or will it prove to be a paradise for spinners as one in the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad where the third and fourth Test matches between India and England played recently ended in just two and three days respectively. Never had in the history of cricket any team won a Test match in just two days.
As Mamata Banerjee is known for some lusty hitting, both on front-foot and back-foot, she had, of late, pushed the otherwise attacking BJP, back to wall. She had done so in the past too. Having won just her own seat in 2004, when she was an NDA constituent, TMC bounced back to win 19 seats in 2009 election and two years later led her party to power in the state. That was simply possible because of her bold decision to take up the cause of farmers of Nandigram and Singur in 2007-08. They were protesting against the land acquisition policy of the then Left Front government for Special Economic Zone and Nano car project.
But this time, that is on the eve of 2021 election, she took sometime before going all out against her rival. It was actually on November 4 night last year that the BJP first blew the bugle just after the arrival of Union home minister Amit Shah to Kolkata. Days later her transport minister Suvendhu Adhikari resigned. In another two-day trip a month later, that is on December 19-20, Shah took into the BJP fold about a dozen elected representatives of TMC, Left parties and Congress. Prominent among those included Suvendhu too.
Mamata, who took some time to settle, initially confined herself to launching new schemes to woo voters.
However, it was in January this year that she changed gear and started taking the battle into the BJP’s half. She decided to travel to Nandigram where on January 18 she announced that she would be contesting from this constituency too. Nandigram, better known for the bloody struggle against the land acquisition policy of the Left Front government, had been represented in the Assembly by Suvendhu till November last when he quit both from the TMC and as the MLA.
The BJP leadership was simply stumped by her decision to fight from Nandigram. Yet, as a counter strategy, the saffron party dropped enough hint to suggest that Suvendhu too would be pitted against her in Bhowanipore in Kolkata, the Assembly constituency presently represented by Mamata in the current Assembly.
Mamata then stuck another blow by declaring that she would be contesting only from Nandigram and not Bhowanipore.
Even though Suvendhu continues to express his willingness to contest in Nandigram and claimed a number of time that he would defeat ‘Didi’ by over 50,000 votes, the otherwise aggressive BJP remained indecisive. The Central Election Committee of the party sat under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for several hours on March 4, but failed to take any decision on fielding Suvendhu. Instead Mamata had on that very day even announced that she would be filing her nomination papers a day before Mahashivratri, that is on March 10.
It took two days for the BJP to finally decide on March 6 to disclose the news that Suvendhu would be taking on Mamata in Nandigram.
The party was compelled to take this decision because a day later, that is on March 7, Prime Minister Modi was scheduled to address a public meeting in Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground. So, going to West Bengal without announcing the candidature of Suvendhu would have been interpreted as the weakness of the BJP.
But just hours after filing her nomination papers on March 10, Mamata was struck on the ankle while she was reportedly coming out of her vehicle in Nandigram. She initially saw a conspiracy in it, but the BJP hotly denied it.
But an injured Mamata does not appear to have lost her spirit and continues to remain offensive.
During the 34-year old Left Front rule she had been attacked several times, most of the time on the head. The most infamous assault on her took place in August 1990 when a Left Front supporter targeted her leading to serious injuries on the head.
West Bengal watchers are of the view that if the Trinamool Congress returns to power – as several opinion polls suggest – it would be largely due to the attacking politics of Mamata Banerjee.
Needless to mention, both the Red Army and the Saffron Brigade have well-oiled war-machines with cadres in all the nooks and corners of the state. In contrast the TMC has a band of supporters who are committed to ‘Didi’ just because of her zeal to fight.
Independent analysts are of the view that some TMC leaders, for their own interest, might have crossed over to the BJP, but her vote bank had more or less remained intact.
True, the BJP had witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last five years, but that was less at the cost of Mamata’s votes. It was largely the votes of Left Front and to some extent that of Congress which had shifted to the saffron side.
Anyway the result of this eight-phase aggressive electoral battle could be known only on May 2 next.