Charge of the Fair Brigade... M for Mamta, not Marxist
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 17, 2011 -

In Assam it is more or less a toss up between the faith earned by the Congress during its ten years rule and the utter failure of the Opposition parties, notably the Asom Gana Parishad, to read the pulse of the people and act accordingly, while in Kerala it is about the anti-incumbency factor.

In Tamil Nadu, corruption and the hegemony of the DMK, personified by the Karunanidhi clan has been identified as the primary factor for the resounding defeat of the DMK and the remarkable come back story scripted by the AIADMK under the unpredictable and volatile Jayalalithaa.

In West Bengal it is the coming to age of Mamta Banerjee and her brand of politics, which caught the Left woefully out of touch with the Aam Aadmi which otherwise formed its support base.

Puducherry had a different story to tell and it is not surprising that this tiny State has not received the attention of the media as much as the other States, for which results of the election to their respective Assemblies were announced recently.

Except for Kerala, which witnessed a close fight between the CPM led Left Democratic Front and the Congress led United Democratic Front, the three States of Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, did not spring any major surprise or upsets as the results of the election did not stray from its script.

We have already commented on the landslide victory the Congress managed in Assam for the third time in a row and while Tamil Nadu followed the beaten track of the anti-incumbency factor, helped in no small measure by the large scale corruption which became synonymous with the DMK rule, it was Mamta Banerjee who managed to steal the show from the others, including Mr Hat Trick Tarun Gogoi.

Of all the women political figures in the country, starting from Shiela Dixit in Delhi, Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and even Sonia Gandhi, Mamta Banerjee stands out prominently for reasons which are not that difficult to factor in.

Unlike Mayawati and Jayalalitha, Miss Banerjee had no Godfather, a la MG Ramachandran or a Kanshi Ram, but single handedly faced the hegemony of the Left rule in West Bengal for over three decades.

Noted writer and one of the more articulate thinkers Ramachandra Guha could not have put it better when he observed that it is Mamta Banerjee, who has had to fight it out alone, without the presence of a Godfather.

Nor did she come from a political Khandan like Sonia Gandhi or Shiela Dixit. Nothing came her way courtesy anyone. Rather it was through the days of braving the heat on the streets of Kolkata and the cadre based goondagiri of the Left that Mamta Banerjee stands where she is today.

Storming the citadel of the Left bastion could not have come about only by mastering the art of street politics or hard selling the idea of rhetoric and playing to the gallery.

It needs something more than just lung power to overthrow a Government which has been in power for over three decades and it is to the credit of Miss Banerjee that she has been able to give a new definition to street politics and come out with a brand of politics which perfectly blends street politics with political sagacity.

Any attempt to deconstruct the politician in Mamta Banerjee will be an exercise in futility, for down the years, no decades, she has shown that she can be both malleable and stubborn, averse to projecting herself as power hungry but at the same time demonstrating that she has in it her to reap the dividends of sitting in the Treasury as well as exhibiting to one and all that she has mastered both the art of playing to the gallery while at the same time conveying the image of a well cultivated political figure, who does not find herself at sea while interacting with the corporate honchos or the university dons in a five star atmosphere.

Remember how she dumped the Congress, formed the Trinamul Congress and then became part of the BJP led NDA Government in Delhi in 1999 or how she managed to keep her dignity intact and move ahead, when the UPA Government led by the Congress had the Left as an important ally, before the bitter divorce in 2008 over the nuclear pact with the United States ?

Only time will tell how the epitaph of her political career will be written but Miss Banerjee must have already realised that from now, she has to take on a totally different avatar.

Organising mass rallies and throwing her weight behind the farmers, as in Singur and Nandigram, is not exactly going to be the same as steering the course of a State, which has been under the rule of the Left parties for decades.

This is where her equation with the Congress will become interesting, especially since it is Madam Sonia who is ruling the roost at Delhi. Mamta Banerjee also faces the unpleasant task of wooing investors while at the same time shedding her image of anti-industrialisation, post Singur and Nandigram.

It may take years to exorcise the ghosts of Nandigram and Singur and Ratan Tata may have brushed away or still not forgotten the ugly stand off triggered by the plan to establish the Nano plant in West Bengal and there may be many others who share the same sentiments.

How Miss Banerjee goes about translating the people's verdict into governance remains to be seen but she has already stamped her name on the select list which boasts of Indira Gandhi, Mayawati, Jayalalithaa, Benazir Bhutto etal.