M A I N   N E W S

The States verdict 2011
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Subhrangshu Gupta
Tribune News Service

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee addresses party workers and supporters at her Kalighat residence in Kolkata on Friday. — PTI

Kolkata, May 13
Mamata Banerjee, who had defeated CPM stalwart Somnath Chatterjee in the 1984 general election, stormed out of the Congress in 1996 after accusing it of being a stooge of the Left Front. Two years later she formed her own political party, Trinamool Congress, designed its logo herself and vowed to throw the communists out of power. Thirteen years later, today the relatively young political party achieved just that and stormed into the Writers’ Building with a landslide victory.

She had sensed her opportunity way back in 2001 itself, when she gave the slogan, “ Now or never”. But voters chose to repose their faith in the wisdom of Jyoti Basu, who had recently stepped down as CM and installed Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as his successor. Bhattacharjee, a graduate in Bengali ( Hons) from Presidency College, fancied himself as a poet and was known to take interest in cinema and culture. Above all, he too promised to usher in change and had coined a slogan of his own, “ Do it now”.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee arrives at the CPM headquarters in Kolkata on Friday. — PTI

The honeymoon with Buddhadeb continued in 2006 as well, when Trinamool Congress and the Indian National Congress (INC) contested the election separately. The Congress needed the support of the Left in Parliament and was contemptuously dismissed by Mamata as the ‘B’ team of the CPM. The divided opposition handed the state on a platter to the Left Front.

By 2009, however, the equations had changed. The Congress and the Left had parted and disenchantment with Bhattacharjee had set in. His government seemed incapable of taking action to maintain law and order or to rein in the cadres or instil some discipline in government employees, policemen, trade unions and teachers, each dominated by party cadres. His ministers seemed out of depth and the government lurched from one crisis to another.

The strong-arm methods used to acquire land for Tata Motors at Singur near Kolkata was a turning point. While the Left Front government failed to maintain transparency and used intimidation to force farmers and tillers into submission, Mamata sustained a blockade that eventually forced the Tatas to pull out of the state and take their project to Sanand in Gujarat.

Nandigram followed when apprehensive farmers cut off road links to resist acquisition of their land for a chemical hub. While the state government later claimed that it had no plans to acquire land at Nandigram, it rushed police there and as many as 14 villagers were killed in police firing. The villagers, mostly belonging to the minority community, rose in rebellion and drove out CPM cadres from the area. After several months of hibernation, the CPM sent in armed cadres to wrest back the control of the area so that its own cadres and their families, sheltered in camps outside, could return. The state government remained a mute spectator to the violent clashes that followed.

Indeed, the government seemed to have no control over rampaging Maoists either, who attacked police stations, ambushed CRPF camps and abducted policemen. While Maoist leaders gave interviews to TV channels, killed alleged police informers, the state government appeared immobilised into inaction.

But when the Centre rushed in para-military forces to contain the Maoists, CPM cadres are accused of taking advantage of their presence to consolidate their own position. Central forces were allegedly unleashed against critics and detractors even as CPM offices in villages, usually double storeyed structures, stockpiled arms.

Trinamool Congress dealt a blow to the Left Front in 2008 by wresting control of thousands of panchayats in 2008. The very next year it managed to win more seats than the Left Front in the Lok Sabha. With 19 MPs in the Lok Sabha, Trinamool joined UPA II and was rewarded with five central ministries. In 2010 Trinamool won the local bodies’ election and wrested control of the prestigious Kolkata and Salt Lake municipal corporations. And now it has followed up with a resounding victory in the Assembly election.