As the primary two phases of the West Bengal meeting ballot, protecting 60 seats in West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Bankura, Jhargram, Purulia and South 24 Parganas, bought over on April 1, the BJP claimed victory in a minimum of 50 seats. Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee cautiously avoided making any prediction, and even affecting optimism past the victory signal she flashed whereas campaigning in Nandigram, the place she is pitted towards Suvendu Adhikari, who defected to the BJP within the run-up to the election.However, for the following 4 rounds of polling, protecting 163 seats, predominantly in South Bengal, the TMC gained 122 seats from right here in 2016, Mamata has struck a belligerent word towards the BJP. No pleas for votes or apologies for ‘mistakes’ dedicated by TMC leaders; quite the opposite, she is asking ladies to arm themselves with kitchen knives towards “rogue BJP workers” and reminding folks within the Muslim-dominated pockets of South 24 Parganas about riots beneath BJP rule.In 60-odd seats within the TMC stronghold of South Bengal and North Bengal’s Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts, the place Muslims account for at the very least a 3rd of the voters, Mamata can be raking up the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and CAA (Citizenship (Amendment) Act) to construct opinion towards the BJP. “If you do not want to be driven out through an NRC exercise, better watch out,” she says at a rally.Mamata’s grip on Bengal’s 30 per cent Muslim inhabitants might not be as sturdy because it was in 2016, owing to the presence on this electoral race of influential Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui. Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front (ISF) is a part of the Left-Congress Third Front. He additionally has the backing of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen) and has fielded candidates in 26 of Bengal’s 294 seats, principally in South Bengal. Mamata is greater than conscious of the menace. “A friend of the BJP from Hyderabad and a ruffian from Furfura Sharif are spending crores of rupees to try and split the minority vote. Voting for them means voting for the BJP,” she warns at a rally in South 24 Parganas, the place 4 ISF candidates are within the fray.Playing it coolThere is a aware try, although, to not fall prey to provocations and do something that buttresses the BJP line that she is ‘anti-Hindu’. Twice in Nandigram, throughout a roadshow in Reyapara and the April 1 polling sales space go to in Boyal over alleged electoral malpractices, Mamata bumped into saffron-clad ‘Jai Shree Ram’ sloganeers however she saved her cool. Similar incidents up to now had seen Didi lose her composure, as she did in Kolkata on January 23, refusing to ship her speech at Netaji’s a hundred and twenty fifth beginning anniversary celebrations, and the May 2019 incident in North 24 Parganas, when she confronted the lads shouting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans as her convoy was passing by way of.But these have been totally different occasions. Heeding the recommendation of senior TMC leaders, Mamata has been deftly avoiding enjoying into the BJP’s palms. ‘Thanda thanda cool cool, abar jitbe Trinamool (Keep your cool, Trinamool Congress will win again)’ is her celebration’s new mantra. “We were able to make Didi understand not to get visibly irritated by such sloganeering. Even Trinamool workers have been cautioned against overreacting to provocations,” says former TMC minister Purnendu Bose, who camped in Nandigram for 3 weeks together with celebration leaders Subrata Bakshi and Dola Sen to supervise Mamata’s marketing campaign. Bose provides that even assaults on celebration staff are being dealt with with restraint. “Didi has asked our workers and leaders to beware of traps the BJP might lay and use to its advantage.”DIDI AT YOUR DOORSTEPGoing past large rallies, Mamata is attempting to offer a private contact to her marketing campaign. It’s ‘Duare duare Mamata (Mamata at every doorstep)’ together with her core group lining up localised election conferences and house-to-house visits. “TMC youth leaders have fanned out to meet people and address their misgivings. Senior leaders are holding meetings in localities. For Mamatadi, we chalked out eight small meetings in Nandigram instead of big rallies to ensure a better connect with the voters,” says Bose.Mamata even cancelled her 5 km roadshow, deliberate on March 29-30, in Nandigram, preferring to go house to house by way of village lanes, on her wheelchair, and join with the voters. “She covered most of the Hindu localities in order to shed the tag of Muslim appeasement foisted on her by Suvendu Adhikari, who had called her ‘Mamata Begum’,” says Biswabandhu Jana, a resident of Bhangabera in Nandigram.During the go to to the Boyal ballot sales space, Mamata left it to the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel to handle the charged ambiance as chest-thumping ‘Jai Shree Ram’ sloganeers got here head to head with TMC staff shouting ‘Khela Hobe (The game is on)’. The temperamental Mamata waited patiently for about two hours, letting securitymen and the Election Commission group to revive order. “I am not worried about Nandigram, I am worried about democracy,” stated Mamata, attempting to settle down supporters by assuring them that authorized recourse was being contemplated. The EC, for the document, has dismissed her claims of sales space capturing at Boyal.STAR CAMPAIGNERThe TMC has a number of large weapons, however Mamata stays its solely star campaigner. While she goals to marketing campaign in 100 seats, nephew Abhishek Banerjee is concentrating on 60, half of them in South 24 Parganas. Besides, a bunch of 20-25 TMC leaders are crisscrossing districts and holding rallies, celebration conferences and coordinating with native teams and activists against the BJP and its insurance policies on the Centre. “In Nandigram, we got Medha Patkar and Yogendra Yadav to educate farmers about the draconian new farm bills and the Narendra Modi government’s indifference to farmers’ woes. Even popular artistes, such Kabir Suman and Nachiketa, who had expressed solidarity with the Nandigram agitation in 2007, were brought in,” says Purnendu Bose.Bose can be mobilising anti-BJP boards comparable to ‘No vote to BJP’ and ‘Bangla Bachao, Songbidhan Bachao (Save Bengal, Save the Constitution)’. Likewise, Dola Sen, who has a powerful base amongst commerce unions, has been visiting the jute mill areas in Hooghly and the tea gardens of North Bengal. Bose himself has labored extensively within the tribal area and areas inhabited by the Rajbongshi and Mechh ethnic teams. One of his goals is to stop an en bloc switch of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) votes to the BJP, in a repeat of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.But with the BJP deploying over 50 nationwide leaders in Bengal and the Modi-Amit Shah duo flying out and in, it has change into all of the extra pertinent for Mamata to stay seen in as many seats as attainable. (See accompanying report Why West Bengal issues to the BJP)The TMC chief is operating a gruelling marketing campaign by way of the size and breadth of the state and addressing a mean of three rallies a day. Sun-tanned, visibly drained and on a wheelchair, Mamata presents a placing distinction to the BJP’s carnival-like rallies and roadshows marked by the heavy presence of Union ministers and celebrities. “Mamata Banerjee is oscillating between two image constructs. One, of an injured woman on a wheelchair, constantly being wronged and looking for the support of Ma-Bonn (mothers and sisters), and the other of a tigress, wounded but nevertheless powerful and vengeful,” says political analyst Sobhanlal Datta Gupta, former professor of political science at Calcutta University. “She switches between the two depending on where she is campaigning.”One purpose why Mamata’s presence alongside her candidates has change into essential is the necessity to tackle discontent within the celebration on the native stage. Unlike the previous, she isn’t searching for a decisive mandate in her title alone. “I am winning, but this election is not about me. You must make the TMC win in over 200 seats; else, the BJP will use money power to buy traitors,” she claimed in Falakata in Alipurduar district.There have been disagreements over candidate choice, however Didi’s phrase has been closing. The course of started over a yr in the past with ballot strategist Prashant Kishor’s group assessing the efficiency and recognition of sitting TMC MLAs earlier than suggesting three probables for every seat. The sitting MLAs have been reportedly categorised beneath 4 broad classes: those that had carried out and likewise had a clear document; performers however seen as corrupt; non-performers who in any other case had a clear document; and non-performers with a doubtful previous. “We chose candidates primarily on the basis of performance and popularity, giving less weightage to the criterion of a clean record,” says a member of Kishor’s group. Attempts have been additionally made to woo some Left and Congress politicians with a clear picture, however with out a lot success.Kishor had advised that 120 of the TMC’s 211 sitting MLAs be dropped. But Mamata was towards such heavy pruning. Ultimately, 80 sitting MLAs have been denied tickets. Mamata and Abhishek tried to placate these denied tickets by making private calls, however many complain about not getting a listening to. “Had Didi called me up and explained why she was unable to field me, I would have thought twice before joining the BJP. No phone call came from Abhishek either,” says Sonali Guha, a Mamata loyalist for 3 many years who defected after being denied a ticket from her Satgachia seat in South 24 Parganas.PAYBACK FROM WELFAREMamata’s trump card may properly be the Rs 12,000 crore a yr social welfare advantages her authorities has been extending regardless of the state’s precarious monetary well being. The subsidised rations, stipends for increased schooling of women, previous age pension for SCs/STs, well being cowl price Rs 5 lakh for all and crop cowl for farmers have benefitted about 75 per cent of Bengal’s 100 million inhabitants in a technique or one other. The TMC additionally claims that every family in Bengal has seen an earnings enhance of Rs 12,000-Rs 20,000 a yr.Mamata should fervently hope that each one this may maintain up towards the BJP’s promise of ‘ashol poribortan (real change)’, so-called ‘double-engine’ progress and clear governance. But Didi can be holding the door ajar for post-poll alignments, ought to the necessity come up. In a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and 10 key opposition leaders in end-March, she has referred to as for uniting towards the BJP to stop a “one-party authoritarian rule” within the nation. Is it political foresight or the primary indicators of panic? We’ll discover out on counting day, May 2.Read India Today journal by downloading the most recent concern: https://www.indiatoday.com/emag