West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is staring at an imminent defeat in the upcoming assembly elections if not for a miracle. Seemingly aware of the ground reality, Mamata is convinced that she has nothing much to show which will see her capture the hearts of Bengalis again. Hence, Mamata is now working on manufacturing a miracle —forcing the BJP to impose President’s rule in Bengal and then cry crocodile tears over the “death of democracy” and hence garner public sympathy and somehow manage to cling on to power.
Mamata Banerjee received the shock of her life in the 2019 LS elections where the BJP won a whopping 18 Lok Sabha seats with a 40.64% vote share. While the TMC won 22 seats, the BJP’s spectacular performance was a sign of things to come.
The Mamata government’s absolute bungling of the pandemic and cyclone further turned the public mood, and a spate of resignations most notably that of Suvendu Adhikari is threatening to vertically split the party and reduce the upcoming West Bengal elections to a mere formality, especially considering the fact that AIMIM’s entry into Bengal politics will snatch a large chunk of minority votes from the TMC.
Hence, Mamata is desperately trying to tie the BJP’s hands upto a point where the party is forced to impose President’s rule in Bengal. The attack on BJP President JP Nadda’s convoy allegedly by TMC workers was a huge failure of the state machinery something which might prove basis for President’s rule.
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After the attack, Mamata decided to pick a turf war with the Central government. When the Ministry of Home Affairs decided to call the three officers tasked with Nadda’s security for central deputation, the Mamata government shockingly refused which was against the rule book.
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The numerous killings of BJP/RSS workers and leaders including a MLA, paints a grim situation of law in West Bengal, thereby providing further basis of imposing President’s rule. In fact, top BJP leadership are facing numerous cases as part of vendetta politics. Let’s take the example of BJP MP Arjun Singh who had 0 cases against him when was in Trinamool but now has 99 cases against him. Suvendhu Adhikari, perhaps aware of how the TMC operates, wrote a letter to the Bengal governor after his resignation from the party, where he wrote about the possibility of vendetta politics being played out against him.
In a desperate move to gain sympathy, TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee went as far as claiming that the BJP might try to assassinate Mamata Banerjee. “They (BJP) are plotting to have Mamata Banerjee removed. They can even hire people to assassinate her secretly if they fail to defeat her electorally. People are being brought from outside to create unrest in Bengal. We will foil their plans,” said Mukherjee.
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While local Bengal leaders have demanded for President’s rule in Bengal, Amit Shah and JP Nadda have so far vowed to remove Mamata through democratic means. However, if push comes to shove, and the attacks on BJP leaders continue to increase and the possibility of free and fair elections continue to diminish, the MHA will have no option but to impose President’s rule in Bengal to ensure a fair conduct of elections. That is perhaps the only hope of Mamata and her TMC as they believe that the imposition of President’s rule will result in a huge sympathy wave for her which will stop the BJP’s juggernaut.