The BJP has been gradually emerging as a power to reckon with in the state of West Bengal. With the Communists and the Congress losing ground in the state, it has already become clear that the contest is now limited to the BJP and TMC in the state of West Bengal. The BJP was constantly trying to corner the TMC over misrule of the Mamata government in West Bengal, constant attacks on BJP workers and Mamata Banerjee’s anti-Hindu communal policies. Mamata was looking nervous. Many a time, she was found going over the top over several issues. The way she threatened ‘civil war’ and ‘blood bath’ over NRC exposed her badly.
All that the BJP needed was Mamata Banerjee to make a mistake that would help it take an unassailable lead in the state of West Bengal. The BJP was patient and the moment finally came with the political showdown over the CBI probe into the Shradha Chit Fund Scam. The CBI had found huge discrepancies in eyewitness accounts and SIT’s investigation. According to multiple witnesses including Sudipto Sen, the police had seized items like pen drive and a diary but no mention of these items was found to be on the seizure list handed to the CBI by the Bengal police. After various attempts by the CBI to summon Rajeev Kumar and his team for deposition in relation to Saradha Chit Fund Scam, the CBI finally landed in Kolkata to question Rajeev Kumar, who at that time was absconding as he was facing an immediate arrest in all likelihood. Mamata claimed that CBI arrived uninformed and was trying to harass an honest and one of the world’s finest cops. Mamata Banerjee government then created one of the worst constitutional crisis in independent India’s history by detaining the CBI team that had arrived to question Rajeev Kumar. This impulsive decision turned out to be a big political mistake and in the near future it will turn out to be the reason of her undoing in the state of West Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee had no other option but to dramatise the entire event. She made an impulsive decision to detain the CBI officers because she knew that if the Kolkata Police Commissioner was questioned and the TMC stood exposed, she would have a hard time handling the delicate situation. She, therefore, threw obstacles in the way of the CBI and then staged a sit-in protest in a bid to indict the central government and the CBI for the political showdown and the constitutional crisis that loomed large over the state of West Bengal. Her opportunistic allies also tried defending her, but that support also proved to be useless. Despite all the noise that she created, she lost the perception war within hours. The BJP did not even have to make an effort to put across its point. It was amply clear that what Mamata Banerjee was doing was outrightly unjustified and unreasonable. The narrative of honest CBI officers versus corrupt cop came up even without anyone having to push it in. This also marked the beginning of the end of TMC era in West Bengal. In such a situation, even the left-liberal cabal wasn’t really eager to defend Mamata Banerjee. Apart from a few opportunistic political outfits, no one supported her. Mamata found herself alone fighting a battle that she had already lost.
It, therefore, did not come as a surprise that she gave up within days on her “indefinite” dharna. The Supreme Court order requiring the Kolkata Police Commissioner to appear before the CBI proved to be the last straw. Mamata Banerjee claimed moral victory but in reality, she knew that this was one of her biggest defeats till date. And this has landed her into a situation from which she will never be able to recover. This is Mamata’s ‘Waterloo’ moment and also the moment which will propel BJP to power in West Bengal. We don’t have to wait for too long. The effect of this major moment will be seen in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls itself.