Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, for the first time perhaps, has to cancel a scheduled election rally within the state since a massive undercurrent in Bengal seems to be favouring the BJP. The voiceless citizens of the state have found confidence with the emergence of the saffron party as a formidable front in Bengal, which is why the TMC supremo is now cancelling and postponing visits to former TMC bastions. Nandigram, which along with Singur formed the fulcrum of Didi’s anti-Left agitations from 2006 is now not evoking much confidence within the Trinamool about its electoral prospects therein.
Citing ill-health of the event manager, Mamata Banerjee has now decided not to attend the rally in Nandigram on January 7, which is the day when the TMC commemorates “Martyrs’ Remembrance Program,” to mark the 2007 movement which led to the fall of the Left government in 2011-heralding Mamata Banerjee’s first term as Chief Minister. This is the first time that Didi will be skipping the program. Interestingly, the very next day (January 8), Suvendu Adhikari, now in the saffron fold, has announced a ‘Nandigram Chalo’ rally.
Mamata Banerjee will now be replaced by party’s state president Subrata Bokshi instead, who will attend the event at Nandigram on January 7. The announcement was made by Akhil Giri, TMC MLA of Ramnagar without stating any reasons for Didi’s absence at the rally. Surprisingly, this comes after the TMC had revealed that the entire event was cancelled due to Akhil Giri testing positive for COVID-19, which made holding the TMC meet impossible.
“MLA Akhil Giri from Ramnagar is the chief organiser. He has been hospitalised with COVID-19. In his absence, it is not possible to go ahead with the programme. We have postponed it for now,” TMC senior leader Subrata Mukherjee said on Monday. Even if the event organiser has tested positive for COVID-19, how is the meet being held still, especially after the ill-health of MLA Akhil Giri was cited as the reason for Didi calling off her all-important visit to Nandigram to host a rally?
It does not require an astronomical genius to conclude that Mamata Banerjee is fearful of a major backlash if she visits Nandigram, which is among the many areas where Suvendu Adhikari is held in high regard. To save Didi the embarrassment, the TMC state president has now been deployed to attend the “Martyrs’ Remembrance Program” by the ruling party. Meanwhile, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, “She (Mamata) will have to cancel a lot of programmes now, just wait and watch. Now, her rallies will be limited to Kalighat…The TMC is scared to do a rally there.”
Barely three months before the elections, Mamata Banerjee cancelling scheduled visits and rallies in areas from where she arose as a formidable challenger to the Left regime over a decade ago, does not send out the right signals. It shows that Didi is being cornered within the state of West Bengal, which is quite an exit poll in itself.