(As West Bengal gears up for meeting polls each Tuesday, The Indian Specific’s Kolkata bureau chief Ravik Bhattacharya decodes the electoral developments, political indicators and marketing campaign strikes shaping the competition.)
It took Mamata Banerjee 48 hours to show why, regardless of all of the accusations of tyranny and corruption in opposition to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), she stays an ace in terms of the artwork of political theater and one of many few opposition leaders who can rival the BJP in terms of optics.
With this, the West Bengal chief minister unveiled an election technique centered round Muslim and Mahila, the 2 MPs who’ve served him faithfully since he got here to energy.
First, on February 4th, West Bengal Chief Minister seems in Supreme Court docket to plead her case in opposition to the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR). Though the state was correctly represented by senior counsel, Banerjee appeared earlier than the First Bench and offered her case earlier than a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which additionally took notice of this truth.
However even earlier than Banerjee headed to courtroom, the TMC turned it right into a spectacle, first blowing up an edited photograph of her with the Supreme Court docket constructing within the background on-line. The information that the sitting CM goes to the Supreme Court docket, though nobody remembers the final time one thing like that occurred, grabbed the eye of nationwide media in addition to on-line (Reel labeled her a Royal Bengal lioness). Banerjee is an professional within the optical sport and has lengthy been adept at profiting from Avenue Fighter’s picture, which has helped her reap the advantages.
In 2021, the TMC is dealing with corruption allegations (lower cash and syndicate tradition have been the buzzwords then) and Mamata’s picture of main a rally with a bandaged leg in a battle with deserters bolstered the picture of an irresistible chief, even with a bruised and bandaged leg. An election marketing campaign constructed round portraying Mamata as Bengal’s daughter – Bangla Nigel Mei Ke Chaiye (Bengal desires a daughter) – propelled the TMC to a cushty victory, limiting the BJP to 77 seats within the 294-member meeting. In 2016, Banerjee equally stood up and blunted the influence of the Narada sting and Sarada Ponzi rip-off that had cornered the TMC.
The anti-SIR push can be a chance for the Bengal CM to solidify his place as the one viable possibility for Muslims, counteracting the distress amongst some minority communities over the OBC record agitation and her temple inauguration agitation geared toward thwarting the BJP’s bid to win Hindu votes by means of polarization.
Mamata’s welfare politics
Barely a day after showing within the Supreme Court docket, Ms. Banerjee returned to Kolkata the place the federal government tabled the fiscal vote, or interim funds. Emphasis positioned on direct profit switch (DBT) regime. The federal government has elevated the funds allotted for ladies beneficiaries beneath the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme and introduced a stipend to unemployed youths who clear class 10 exams.
Following the Rs 500 month-to-month hike in Lakshmir Bhandar, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) girls will obtain Rs 1,500 per thirty days. The scheme, launched forward of the 2021 meeting elections, was in style amongst girls, very like the schemes of Ladri Behena and Majhi Ladki Bahin, which supported the Bharatiya Janata Occasion in states akin to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. To date, 2.2 crore girls have benefited from Laxmier Bandar, together with 290,000 SC girls and 478,000 Adivasi girls. The Mamata authorities has additionally elevated the month-to-month wages of ASHA and anganwadi employees, who’re largely girls, by Rs 1,000. Anganwadi employees within the state will now obtain Rs 5,500 per thirty days.
The federal government additionally introduced that beneath the youth scheme, folks between the ages of 21 and 40 will obtain an unemployment allowance of Rs 1,500 per thirty days for 5 years or till they discover employment, whichever is earlier.
Nevertheless, this improve in women-centered schemes and allocations to DBT comes on the expense of allocations to noon meals, pre-school and post-graduation stipends, public well being departments, mass schooling extension and library providers, education, and self-help teams.
Opposition events have criticized the Mamata authorities’s fiscal insurance policies as basically damaging to Bengal’s financial system, because the state is cash-strapped and reliant on loans. Furthermore, there may be extra stress to pay 25% of pending Dearness Allowance (DA) dues from 2008 to 2019 by March 31 as per the Supreme Court docket order. Contractors within the state have additionally identified that they’ve unpaid dues. Because of this, primary public works tasks, together with street repairs, stay on maintain in a number of components of the state.
Whereas the BJP has criticized the interim funds as a “procuring record of election bribes” stuffed with guarantees which can be “legally unworkable” and known as Mamata’s look within the Supreme Court docket a “present,” the true problem is promoting this narrative to voters.
