DELIBERATE
    Date :14-Apr-2021
THE events during the campaign for Legislative Assembly elections in West Bengal demonstrate beyond doubt that Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee has chosen to invite confrontation with the Centre as part of her overall political strategy. Each of her statements during the first four phases of polling process demonstrates quite candidly that somehow, Madam Banerjee is instigating not just her cadres to resort to unlawful methods but also daring the Central agencies -- including the Election Commission -- to take action against her.
 

Mamata stages dharna b_1&
 
 
This is an ominous development, to say the least, in the overall democratic electoral system that the world has come to admire. Ms. Banerjee’s resort to dharna against the Election Commission’s 24-hour ban on her campaigning is one good example of how the Trinamool Congress supremo wishes to pursue her policy and strategy of deliberate confrontation. Ms. Banerjee has also said several times in the past few days that she cares a damn for the Election directives and warnings. Her party’s spokesman, Mr. Derek Obrien (who also is a Member of Parliament) has added fuel to fire by stating that the EC ban marks a ‘black day’ for democracy. An animalistic urge for confrontation is, thus, writ large on the overall conduct of the Trinamool Congress’ leader and cadre. There is little sense in adopting such a strategy. But experience has been that Ms. Banerjee has often indulged in such stances all through her long political career. In the past seven years since the ascendence of Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee has been seen adopting a confrontationist approach to her handling of Centre-State relations. Not only has she refused to cooperate with the Centre on legitimate schemes meant for people’s welfare but also has tried her best to distort the Central Government’s positions on most issues.
 
In the process, she did not mind even raising issue about the integrity and competence of India’s famed Armed Forces. This has been the background of Ms. Mamata Banerjee’s confrontationist strategy. A major point of Ms. Banerjee’s discomfiture is the aggressive approach of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She seems to have lost her sense of proportion in the face of the BJP blitzkrieg and is only offering her reaction, almost fully unable to force her own narrative on the electoral contest. This has certainly made the West Bengal Chief Minister very edgy -- which is reflected fully in the way she is handling the electoral challenge. Her party may do very well in the elections and defy a lot of predictions to the contrary. But at least for the present, she appears to have been playing to the BJP tune, not knowing how to introduce her own theme and narrative into the electoral melee. That explains her edginess all right. And the TMC boss does not seem to have any advisor who can stop her in mid-track and ask her to adopt a saner approach. She being the absolute supremo, Ms. Banerjee, thus, also appears to have run out of wise counsel that is so necessary in such situations of extreme anxieties. No matter these nuanced compulsions, it is clear that the TMC has adopted a deliberately confrontationist strategy, as has been the style and substance of Ms. Mamata Banerjee’s electoral politics.
 
That is the reason she is showing the temerity to defy even the Election Commission and dare other central agencies. In that madness, she has not spared even the constitutional institutions of Prime Minister and Home Minister. Obviously, she seems to be itching for an open confrontation -- possibly hoping that such an approach may present her as a martyr on the political battle-ground. It is not possible to assess how that would help Ms. Banerjee electorally. For, half of the phases of polling are already over and Ms. Banerjee may have lost much ground in these initial spells of contest. Perhaps, her own political acumen and experience may be telling her that confrontation is the best method of winning. Perhaps, she may not be realising that she is inviting her own fall.