Money cut, vote bank, crime, jobs, nephew, desertions – all that can bring Mamata down

Stock photo of Mamata Banerjee. PTI

In Bengal, the fields of white kaash blossoms are precursors to Durga Puja and the fields of blood herald elections.

The auspicious has passed. The disaster is fast approaching.

The state BJP alleges that ruling TMC thugs have blatantly murdered more than 120 of its workers and leaders. He says that the Mamata Banerjee regime is trying to quell its spectacular rise through the use of terror.

Banerjee retains a strong mass appeal among large sections of the state’s electorate. His simplicity, street fighter courage, and grassroots connection still present formidable political force.

Can the BJP defeat her? Left to himself, the challenge may have seemed insurmountable. But the force that seems increasingly capable of defeating Mamata Banerjee is Mamata Banerjee herself.

He will enter the race for Bengal with luggage that has been created in ten years tied to his ankles.

It all started with the anti-corporate and anti-land acquisition movements – Singur and Nandigram – that propelled her to power in 2011. It gave business and industry such a complete scare that no worthy manufacturing and service center has emerged. of mention from the left. left. The stagnation is staggering, migration has not slowed. State satraps cite unadjusted growth figures and other similar metrics to cover it up.

Money cutting, or bribery and brokerage, at every stage in all sectors, has become endemic. Fingers point to the top: Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek. As his power within the party increases, he is also talked about controlling different for-profit unions across the state.

Abhishek could hamper his aunt’s chances in the upcoming election in more ways than one. Several veterans view his rise as dynastic and lacking in merit. They resent his seemingly cheeky style of operation.

At a time when the BJP is fishing the turbulent waters of TMC with a large net, discontent makes it easy for them to catch big fish like Shuvendu Adhikari.

Nepotism and corruption have reached such a point that the prime minister has had to publicly appeal to her workers to desist. Cyclone Amphan relief money and supplies were reportedly distributed to local TMC leaders and those close to them, leaving out those whose lives were devastated by the storm.

Then there is law and order. The BJP has been waving a list of more than 120 saffron workers and leaders killed by TMC men as of late. Haunting images of young people killed and hung from trees haunt voters. A young couple and their 6-year-old son were massacred because their husband, RSS activist Bondhu Prakash Pal, opposed the construction of a mosque next to their home.

Horrible violations grab the headlines. Recently, a 16-year-old girl was repeatedly gang-raped in Jalpaiguri, killed and thrown into a septic tank. His body was found a week later. The gang rape and murder of another minor sparked mass protests in northern Dinajpur.

And finally, the “Muslim appeasement” insult that Banerjee provoked himself will be difficult to erase. His current political adviser, Prashant Kishor, has reportedly asked him to moderate his hitherto blatant Muslim vote bank policy and offer subsidies to Hindu priests as he did to imams and muezzins, but it could be too little and too late.

A series of arrests by the NIA of al Qaeda sleeper cells in Murshidabad shows the kind of protection and penetration that jihadists have enjoyed in the state. During the CAA protests, parts of Bengal burned. Hundreds of buses, various trains and railway stations were set on fire by Islamist mobs. The law enforcement officers just looked.

Add to this his recent flirtation with the Maoists, whom he had strongly held back after coming to power. The Naxal leader’s wife, Chhatradhar Mahato, has gotten a job, and there seems to be an understanding afoot. Bengal has a new spectrum on the horizon: the joining of Islamist and Maoist forces to defeat the BJP. A very dark and explosive cocktail.

It’s not that Banerjee has failed on all fronts. His government schemes like Kanyashree, Sabuj Sathi, Khadya Sathi are popular. Some parts of the state have seen large-scale road and infrastructure construction.

But it may not be enough. Banerjee’s packing list is too long. And a confident BJP, who has tasted blood with his 2019 election success, will not let voters lose a single piece of luggage.