How the lotus weeded out Trinamool hegemony in West Bengal

Kolkata, West Bengal: Fifty-year-old Kali Chaurasiya, a resident of CR Avenue in Kolkata and the owner of a hardware business shop, danced non-stop for 30 minutes for media cameras, celebrating the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).He told correspondents that it was clear by 9 am itself that Narendra Modi is set to return for a second term as Prime Minister. Many such celebrations could be witnessed in Kolkata as the Lok Sabha election results came trickling in.By 4.30 pm, the situation was clear. While the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 22 seats, the BJP came close with 19 seats. In terms of vote share, the TMC polled 42 percent votes whereas the BJP secured 41 percent. This is the saffron party's biggest victory in West Bengal.While the BJP cadre and supporters revelled the party's landmark performance, the TMC maintained a stony silence. TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee scheduled a press conference, postponed it and then called it off."The result has proved that the Mamata government is going to fall apart. The people of Bengal have provided her with a befitting reply after what she has done to them," said Raju Banerjee, general secretary of the BJP’s West Bengal unit.BJP leaders and Lok Sabha candidates such as Locket Chatterjee, Babul Supriyo, party state president Dilip Ghosh and Jyotirmoy Mahato led the fight and won by handsome margins.Although Kolkata Uttar, Dakshin, Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Diamond Harbour, Basirhat, Birbbhum saw the TMC scoring wins, the party’s overall performance has given it a reason to question its dominance in the state.Shyam Dan, an unskilled labourer from Singur—best known as the site first chosen for manufacture of Tata Nano, which was then driven out due to TMC-backed protests—said the TMC made the locals believe the industry would finish off the farmers and take away their financial independence. “The Nano episode is many years old now and the youngsters of Singur are sitting jobless at home,” he said. “Families are dying of hunger. They eat once a day. We never wanted this parivartan (change).”Chatterjee, the BJP candidate from Hooghly (where Singur lies), said "Parivartan was just an eyewash. They [TMC] exploited the people of Singur in its name… With Narendra Modi's support, we hope to bring about a change that promotes development."Asansol too saw a surge in the support for the BJP over the past five years. The Hindi-speaking belt chose Babul Supriyo as its representative with a winning margin of almost a lakh votes. "We do not need any congratulatory message from Madam Banerjee. Enough has been done and said. She has brought scathing attacks on me several times, she challenged me if I could ever win from Asansol and here I am, making my mark in Asansol,” he said.Role of religionShambhu Pandit, a jute mill promoter, said, "With TMC's increasing dadagiri (hooliganism), it was getting very difficult for us to live in peace. The other community is shielded by the state government all the time while they are free to come in anytime and vandalise our colonies and houses."Sentiment on the street is that Banerjee’s minority-appeasement went against her this time. It left a lot of Hindus angry and apprehensive about their own existence.Diamond Harbour, which should have been an easy win for the CM’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, saw the BJP's Nilanjan Roy giving him a tough fight."There are Hindu families tortured by TMC goons here. That is why today they are rebelling. I might have lost by a few thousand votes but remember the amount of rigging that took place in the state," said Roy, who was also slapped with a molestation case right before the elections.A TMC candidate unwilling to be named said, "All these riot talk is fake news, spread by social media and BJP men. Voting was peaceful and fair in Diamond Harbour. It is the people's verdict."Left outThe Left got wiped out this election. Not only did Left parties fail to win a single seat, but leaders such as Md Salim, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and Fuad Halim did not poll more than 20 percent votes.Left-front leaders stayed away from the media in the wake of the results. Saurav Kanti Sen, a leader of Students' Federation of India (Communist Party of India's student wing), said that a CPI loyalist would never vote for the TMC, so their share of votes must have gone to the BJP.

West Bengal: Sober mood in Mamata's bastion as BJP celebrates

West Bengal: As counting trends indicate that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has earned a credible presence in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's claims of a whitewash have gone for a toss. The state has 42 Lok Sabha seats and Banerjee had confidently claimed ahead of the polls that her party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), would register a clean sweep. However, trends till 11.45 am had the TMC leading in 25 seats and the BJP in 16. By noon, the count showed TMC had won 45 percent of votes, and the BJP a close 40 percent.“I feel the BJP will spring a big surprise in West Bengal. Both the seat tally and the vote share will increase substantially uniformly across the state,” says Kalyan Choubey, former footballer and BJP candidate from Krishnangar, in Nadia district. He was leading by 5,000 votes till 11 am.  The neighbourhood around Banerjee's residence wore a sombre look, and unlike any other election result day, no crowd or mass gathering could be seen there. Only a small group was spotted celebrating in front of Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata.In contrast, BJP offices wore a festive mood. Celebrations were already underway at the the party’s state headquarters on Central Avenue in Kolkata. Most senior leaders were inside, glued to the television, monitoring the developments closely. But that did not deter party workers from already celebrating what they said would be a historic win. “This has never happened in West Bengal. This will be the best result ever, but more is in store. This is the stepping stone to wresting power in the state,” says Kamlesh Pandey, a BJP worker in Jorasanko.a swipe at Banerjee's 42/42 claim, singer and BJP candidate from Asansol, Babul Supriyo, says, “TMC thought the public is a fool. Now they [TMC] look like big fools.” In Asansol, Supriyo was facing fellow celebrity, actor Moon Moon Sen of the TMC. By noon, Supriyo was leading by about 60,000 votes. With his win almost locked, he was upbeat and exuding confience. Responding to the counting trends, Sen told TV cameras with a subtle smile, "Amar ebar ektu bhoy korche (I am now a bit scared).”Mita Laha, who works as a domestic help in the city, says, “Power had spoilt the TMC people in our area. For every silly reason, they would pick up violent clashes with the villagers, they became fearless, the audacity reached some other level. I live with my handicapped husband and three small children. When my land was illegally captured by TMC patrons, BJP helped me out and that is why I want them to come in power.”The results show that the BJP is getting stronger in the state. Case in point: Political newbie Arjun Singh, a BJP candidate, is giving neck-to-neck competition to TMC veteran Dinesh Tribedi.Left front left outWest Bengal was once identified with a single political colour—red. However, counting trends till noon did not show a single seat going to the Left front."Many Left party workers from our village switched allegiance to the BJP in 2016-17. Left supporters and TMC supporters would never gel, and the Left soon became a toothless party in the state. We hardly had a say. I have seen many Left loyalists change sides, and I can't blame them for it,” says Manisur Rahman, a Left front leader from Medinipur.BJP Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly says, “It is not only about red turning into saffron. Left supporters are considered with high regard. They have an understanding of the situation. When they decide to shift their vote, they give it a good thought. It is well known to all of us now, Modi is the only person who can help our country function in a democratic manner, not like an arbitrary leader like Mamata Banerjee.”Kolkata remained tense throughout Wednesday, a day before counting, with many anticipating violence on Thursday. The administration deployed 10,000 police personnel in and around counting centres in the city. Several companies of the central forces have also been deployed inside and outside the counting centres.“West Bengal, which has a reputation of post-poll violence, becomes particularly volatile when there is a shift in power from one political party to another. Keeping that in mind, we have taken all possible precautions. Entry of victory processions has been barred near counting centres,” says a senior police officer.

Media taking sides? Kolkata police favouring TMC? Questions follow May 14 violence

Kolkota, West Bengal: On May 14, BJP president Amit Shah took out a roadshow in Kolkata, sending BJP and TMC workers at each other’s throats. Since then, the national media has been debating, analysing, (shouting), and flashing screenshots and videos of the clashes that broke out. Much of the headline space has been dedicated to the heavy violence and vandalism across the ‘cultural capital’, which included damage to the statue of Vidyasagar on the Vidyasagar College campus.After the stone-pelting, arson, and rioting, the incident is continuing to generate sparring over social media and other platforms. A blame game has ensued over which party is at fault, who started it all and caused the most damage, and what were the police doing despite having advance information about the possibility of such mayhem.An immediate repercussion of this has been the EC declaring 6 pm, May 16, as the deadline for poll campaigning, which means no party can now take out rallies or roadshows, and later issuing an order shunting the officer in charge of Amherst Street police station.Amid these ‘consequences’ and finger-pointing, what is most interesting to see is the fourth estate picking sides in its reportage of the ‘black day’ and its related events.West Bengal goes to polls on May 19, the last phase of the elections, in nine constituencies — Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, and Kolkata Uttar; the May 14 disturbance is predicted to have a huge impact on the ballot box. Media: a mouthpiece of democracy or politicking?Mainstream English news channels Times Now, Republic TV, and Zee News among others focused on the attack on Shah’s roadshow with the hashtags #BengalBurning, #ShahAttacked, and #ShahRallyTargeted trending on top. Whether this tripping over each other in the competition over coverage is a hint about whose corner they are in is anybody’s guess.The regional media, on the other hand, seemed to have gone out of its way to do the opposite; it broadcast fire and clash visuals with inputs suggesting ‘how the gerua gang attacked the college and vandalised the bust’. Regional mains ABP Ananda, News 18 Bangla, and 24 Ghanta seemed like the state’s mouthpieces. They even declared the vandals as “BJP members”, way before the police or administration arrived on the scene and started the investigation. Panelists and experts on back-to-back debates discussed and dissected “how the saffron party is changing the dynamics of politics in Bengal” or “how it is causing communal disharmony in the state”.“Everything happened within an hour, leaving all of us in a state of confusion. Frankly, the violations and provocations came from both sides — BJP and SFI-TMC, Chatra Parishad. We did our jobs from the field; the rest was beyond our control. Agendas are set at the HQs of media houses,” said a senior reporter with an English news channel.While the mainstream news channels continued pushing their agenda on the roadshow attack, no regional media stalwarts really highlighted the fact that SFI and Chatra Parishad had united to stop Shah’s rally.Administration not in the clear eitherBoth sides of the media seemed so focused on broadcasting their version of the truth that neither looked into the role of the Kolkata Police in the whole melee, until Shah, in a press conference in Delhi, alleged how his security was compromised on many levels.“The rally had a crowd of around 20,000 with more joining as it went forward; and yet, the number of police personnel remained surprisingly low. At the same time, when Mamata Banerjee took to the streets and walked her first padyatra on May 15 from Beleghata to Shyambazar, several thousand personnel were deployed,” alleged Sayantan Basu, BJP Bengal’s general secretary.“Amit Shah is no small leader. He is our party president. How could the police compromise his security like this?”Multiple reports have revealed that the Kolkata Police special branch had received advance intel on the possibility of a clash on College Street and still did not act on it. People have alleged that the absence of law enforcement gave the mob a free hand to cause greater damage, because by the time the cops arrived on the scene, the situation had already spiralled out of control.“We kept our campus locked from inside but were able to gauge what was happening out there. When BJP supporters were trying provoke people from our campus, it was our students, staff, and security guards who braved it all and shut the gate; no policeman could be spotted around,” said Abhishek Mani, a student from Calcutta University’s College Street campus.However, Central Police observer to West Bengal, Vivek Dubey said, “As soon as we received reports about the violence, cases were registered based on incidents. While initially 100 men were mentioned, the Kolkata Police later detained 58.” All of them reportedly belong to the BJP.On Thursday, the Kolkata Police constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the vandalism. The SIT will be headed by the deputy commissioner of Kolkata Police (North).Are the police in TMC’s pocket?In the past several years, the role and credibility of the police in West Bengal and Kolkata have come under scanner, the most recent issue being Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fighting the CBI on behalf of former police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.Many had then thought that after strong criticism over the police behaving like the puppet of a political party, the situation would neutralise, at least till the elections. But that doesn’t seem to have happened.With BJP activist Priyanka Sharma getting arrested for sharing a controversial meme on Mamata Banerjee on Facebook and BJP’s Diamond Harbour candidate Nilanjan Roy being allegedly harassed by the police, the saffron party is alleging misuse of power by Mamata.Roy is contesting against Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Earlier this month, a POSCO case was filed against him in Falta police station, followed by repeated calls to Lalbazar and Bowbazar police stations. In the alleged molestation a 17-year-old girl on April 26, the girl’s family had lodged a police complaint against Roy.BJP state president Dilip Ghosh has called the case fictitious, while another leader, Jay Prakash Majumder, has said it is a political conspiracy by Mamata Banerjee. “The whole matter stinks of a deep-rooted conspiracy to defame and malign our candidate. You think an election candidate would be so stupid as to commit a crime as grave as this just before the polls?” asked Majumder. So far, the Kolkata Police has reportedly found nothing in the case. In the past, its role in the customs’ investigation of Abhishek Banerjee’s wife has also been criticised on many levels.