West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Avishek Banerjee after the TMC’s stellar performance in the Lok Sabha polls. (Express Photo)
“People underestimate me,” said Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress chief and Bengal Chief Minister, who defied every pollster’s prediction to win 29 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the toughest survival battle of her career. But what political pundits have clearly misunderstood or overlooked is the chemistry that Didi has with her people, and that she roars back when pushed against the wall. That’s the time she is at her strongest.
The truth is, Banerjee’s organic connection with the people has never been as an administrator but as an anti-establishment crusader for grassroots justice. In fact, she has been able to carve her political space precisely because of her fire and brimstone attitude and agitationist style. Her politics of subversion convinced people of her sincerity of purpose, one that never settled or compromised. She broke away from the Congress, toppled three generations of Left rule and swung in and out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government legitimising her image as an activist rather than a power player. Mamata’s unassailable appeal lies in uprooting Left giants while operating within a hostile system (this still matters to two generations of voters). She stood up to them and built her political stock on her charisma, cause-based activism and grassroots connect.
In that sense, she has been a disruptor and in recent years emerged as a key Opposition face, the only one qualified to take on the BJP and match their aggression step by step. This time, it was not so much soft Hindutva but a more potent card she played, that of Bengali identity.
Her slogan of “Bangla birodhi jonogoner gorjon/Bangla birodhider bishorjon (roar against anti-Bengal forces, sink them) worked its way into the Bengali psyche because it equated BJP with an “outsider” that could culturally erode “the insider.” And to Mamata’s credit, she has been able to co-opt the “outsider settlers” over generations, namely non-Bengalis, into being her “insiders.” That’s why the denial of Central funds to Bengal for the MNREGA scheme, which she turned into a visible campaign with MPs protesting in Delhi, washed off on the rural electorate, many of whom are migrants.
Like many politicians in power, Mamata, too, has built a constituency of beneficiaries. She had always had an emotional connect with women. But with her educational grants for girl child education through Kanyashree and direct cash transfers through Lakhsmi Bhandar, she gave them a tool of empowerment. More importantly, she was able to convince each of her beneficiaries that these schemes would be discontinued if she couldn’t send enough representatives to Parliament. In fact, her aggressive door-to-door outreach has ensured the conversion of every beneficiary into a loyal vote. Over the last few years, she has moved ahead of the BJP in fast-forwarding the process of issuing caste certificates to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
Many might think that Mamata’s vote comes from the minorities, the marginalised and women. But with nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who has been assiduously working and resonating with young people, she has signalled a generational shift and continuity.
Many may wonder why Mamata scores despite criticism about scams, administrative bungling and her politics of coercion. Her voters see this in comparison with bigger scams elsewhere. In a way, they “otherise” these either as aberrations or ills that plague other parties just as much. Didi’s own image is that of someone who gets taken advantage of by her coterie; she is rarely seen as a perpetrator. This distancing, cultivated or otherwise, still gives her an edge. The rest she makes up by positing herself as a people’s person, making chai in their homes and being on-the-spot for every disaster relief. As for the religion card, she has neutralised it by making Durga puja Bengal’s most secular event with public ownership.
When it comes to charges of “electoral management,” the BJP itself, while promising change, is not immune to charges of getting men from Bihar and Jharkhand into Bengal. The sadder story in Bengal is that each political party has institutionalised muscle power. That’s why crossovers in Bengal politics now are rarely ideological, but solely about intimidatory heft. That has unfortunately set the terms of the discourse and voters, decided or undecided, feel they should weigh in with the strongest side. But as a single woman leader muscling her way among male rivals and battling the odds, Mamata will always be trusted as a matriarch who knows what works best for the state.
rinku.ghosh@expressindia.com
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