When the West Bengal assembly election is making national headlines daily and virtually eclipsed elections that got over in three other states and one union territory, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi only arrived in the state on April 14—when four of eight phases of the election got over.
On Wednesday, Gandhi addressed two public rallies—one in Goalpokhar of Uttar Dinajpur district and the other at Shivmandir Bazar Matigara, Darjeeling district.
Gandhi spoke for 49 minutes in total. In his 49-minute speech, he said, “Mamataji” (Mamata Banerjee) only 13 times, whereas, in almost every sentence, he mentioned Narendra Modi’s name.
Gandhi made a no-holds-barred attack on Modi and his government policies—from tackling Covid-19, migrant crisis, demonetisation and an unplanned Good and Services Tax (GST) implementation.
“BJP is spreading the ideology of hatred and violence. They did it in Assam, they did it in Tamil Nadu through AIADMK. Other than these two things, BJP doesn’t have anything else to offer. They (BJP) want to divide and break Bengal. They want to finish the brotherhood among Bengalis. Nothing will happen to Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Amit Shah’s son. But Bengal will burn. People of Bengal will suffer,” Gandhi said in Goalpokhar.
In a lucid manner, Gandhi attacked Mamata Banerjee’s government and said, “You gave an opportunity to Trinamool but they failed. Has Mamataji built roads here? Has she built any new colleges? People have to venture out for jobs because there is no opportunity in the state. Even if there are few jobs here, one has to pay in advance. This is the only state where you have to pay ‘cut money’ (bribe) to get jobs.”
He soon shifted his focus to the Prime Minister and said, “This is not Narendra Modi’s government. This government belongs to two-three corporate houses. The Prime Minister is just their puppet. What they ask him to do, he obliges.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressing an election rally in West Bengal. Photo: Facebook/Gandhi.
While addressing his second public meeting in Darjeeling, Trinamool’s mention appeared only after 19 minutes into Gandhi’s 25 minutes speech. “Congress has been fighting the BJP and RSS for decades. We will compromise our ideology and hold their hand. But do remember TMC in the past had an alliance with the BJP. Do remember that.” He then said, “Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are not scared of Mamata ji, because they know they can easily control Mamata ji.”
Slamming the BJP government, Gandhi warned the listeners and said, “Let me tell my Bengali brothers and sisters, a danger is standing right in front of you. The day BJP ideology sets its foot in Bengal, from that day Bengal will be on fire. And nobody can stop that fire.”
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s campaign
Interestingly, West Bengal PCC chief and leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury didn’t accompany Gandhi in any of his public meetings. Also, the pitch of Chowdhury’s campaign is in complete contrast to that of Gandhi‘s. While Chowdhury is attacking Modi and BJP from his public meetings and roadshows, his attack on Mamata is more shrill.
Like on April 13, while addressing a public meeting at Murshidabad’s Hariharpara, Chowdhury said, “Suvendu Adhikari used to tell me that I will join BJP. Now, Adhikari himself is in BJP. And Suvendu Adhikari will defeat Mamata Banerjee.” In his speech, not even once he mentioned the name of Congress-Left-ISF alliance candidate Nandigram Minakshi Mukherjee.
On March 28, the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, wrote a letter to leaders of various parties who opposed the rule of Narendra Modi-led BJP at the Centre. The letter was addressed to leaders like Congress’s Sonia Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Admi Party (AAP), Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) among others.
At a Congress rally in West Bengal. Congress is part of the Sankyut Morcha alliance. Photo: Facebook.
“BJP wants to make it impossible for non-BJP parties to exercise their constitutional rights and freedoms. It wants to dilute the powers of state governments and downgrade them to mere municipalities. In short, it wants to establish a ONE-PARTY AUTHORITARIAN RULE in India. Therefore, I strongly believe that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attacks on democracy and the Constitution,” she had written.
In reaction to Banerjee’s letter, the leader of Congress said, “Mamata Banerjee has understood that she will face defeat. She has written a long letter to Sonia Gandhi, seeking her help. In the letter, the TMC chief has sought help from the Congress to stop the BJP from coming to power in Bengal,” said Chowdhury.
Recently, he has also accused the incumbent chief minister of communalising the elections. Chowdhury said that TMC and BJP might join hands if both the parties fall short of the requisite numbers to form the government.
On the question of post-poll alliance, Chowdhury in an interview to news agency PTI said, “BJP and communal politics have found a foothold in West Bengal because of Mamata Banerjee. There is no question of supporting TMC in a post-poll scenario, if it falls short of a majority.”
When the election commission of India barred Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours because of the violation of MCC, Chowdhury in his reaction said, “When EC bans a chief minister for violation of MCC, nothing can be more insulting than that. This also shows that she is not qualified enough to be a CM.”
On March 10, when Mamata Banerjee was injured in Nandigram, Chowdhury accused her of ‘Siyasi pakhand’ (political hypocrisy) and ‘nautanki’ (theatrics) to gain sympathy from the masses ahead of the election.
The Congress party distanced itself from Chowdhury’s claim. Senior leaders like Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari condemned the attack and wished the TMC chief a speedy recovery.
Many political observers believe that Chowdhury and the Congress high command are not on the same page when it comes to Bengal politics.
Maidul Islam, a political scientist at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) in Kolkata told The Wire, “For many years now, Adhir Chowdhury posed an anti-Mamata stance. In the recent past, in almost all the political developments in Bengal, Chowdhury blamed Mamata for some reason or the other. Now that all opposition is ganging up against her, Chowdhury is doing a notch or two more than others.
While Rahul Gandhi is looking at a broader picture. He knows that TMC is Congress’ natural ally, so not targeting Mamata, keeping in mind the possibilities of political alliances and political movements together, leading to the Lok Sabha 2024.
When Sonia Gandhi is giving space to Mamata in the opposition party meeting in the recent past that clearly shows the equation between the two parties. I don’t think what Adhir Chowdhury says here will make much of a difference.”