Federal games: The 2019 ambitions of Mamata Banerjee

Speaking in the context of the challenge of unseating the Modi government, Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien said yesterday that 2018-19 is the year to “think federal”. This means regional parties across the country have to join hands to take up this challenge. But it also pertains to the leadership question. Could a regional leader helm the opposition campaign?

O’Brien said chief minister Mamata Banerjee is one of the “most senior leaders in this matrix”. One point he often makes is that she has unique credentials in terms of having been both an MP and a CM. While that’s indisputable, what is less so is her acceptability beyond Bengal.

In the state she is the tallest leader by far. Her political feats there are equal to the Modi mandate of 2014. She has kept an ambitious BJP reined in, by all means possible.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. (TOI file photo)

But her record is clouded by widespread lawlessness in Bengal and repression of opposition political workers. The Supreme Court recently expressed shock that thousands of seats in recent panchayat polls in Bengal went uncontested, an outcome of political intimidation.

Moreover, the existence of extortionist “syndicates” with affiliations to the ruling party deter business even as they are an outcome of limited economic activity and consequent unemployment in Bengal.

It is a moot point, therefore, how acceptable Mamata’s leadership would be to a putative opposition coalition. That may be an even less attractive proposition to other opposition leaders than Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.