Why Mamata Banerjee has brought the fight against BJP to Delhi

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Besides filing a petition in the Supreme Court herself now to challenge the SIR exercise, Mamata led a TMC delegation, all dressed in black, along with 12 “SIR-affected” people – including some “wrongly” declared dead and kin of those who allegedly died due to “SIR pressure” – to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi Monday.

She stormed out of the meeting, claiming that the TMC delegation “boycotted” it as Kumar allegedly “insulted” them. She accused the poll panel of allegedly working at the behest of the BJP. Earlier in the day, she also confronted the Delhi police deployed at Banga Bhawans, alleging harassment of the SIR-affected families brought there by her party.

These moves are not just optics, but also reflect a major challenge facing Mamata.

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As more than one crore voters face hearings across Bengal over “logical discrepancies” in their SIR-related forms, the CM chose to lead her party’s protests in Delhi herself. Earlier it was TMC national general secretary and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee who had led a delegation to meet the EC over the SIR row.

Mamata’s worry mainly stems from the point that if the names of a significant number of electors are deleted from the final voter list, which may include a sizeable number of electors from the minority community, her party could run into rough weather in a slew of seats in the upcoming polls.
Since 2011, when Mamata ousted the CPI(M)-led Left Front from power after its 34-year rule, the TMC has started off in every Assembly election with a substantial percentage of Muslim votes in its perceived kitty. Muslims make up more than 27% of Bengal’s population.

Aware that soon after the publication of final electoral rolls on February 14, the poll dates will be announced, Mamata is already in campaign mode, hitting the streets of Bengal and Delhi against the BJP in keeping with her image as a firebrand leader.

She has clearly chosen to use the SIR row as a political weapon against the BJP, which the TMC believes could blunt its rivals’ attacks against the Mamata government over lack of industry, unemployment, and corruption.

ALSO READ | Mamata moves Supreme Court against EC over SIR exercise

Section of Muslims unhappy

With a section of Muslims apparently unhappy over issues like changes in the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBCs) list, which has shrunk their share in reservation, implementation of the amended Waqf law in Bengal, and “harassment” of migrant labourers in other states, Mamata’s aggressive action is also aimed at rallying minorities round the TMC over the SIR issue.

But this is just one of the fronts on which Mamata is battling despite the TMC’s overwhelming dominance at the grassroots level across the state.

The CM had to make her intervention even in her own Assembly seat, Bhawanipur, in Kolkata. On November 30, she convened a meeting of local TMC leaders, councillors and booth level agents (BLAs) after getting reports that the names of about 45,000 voters have been deleted in the draft voter list in her constituency.

At the meeting, Mamata asked them to submit the names of deleted electors and of those who were called for hearing in “logical discrepancy” cases. She directed her BLAs to go door-to-door to reach out to all the voters and ensure a foolproof list.

Her winning margin in the seat was 58,835 votes in the 2021 by-election. Earlier that year, in the Assembly polls, the TMC’s Sovondeb Chatterjee had won the Bhawanipur seat by 28,719 votes.

Mamata’s other challenges

The TMC supremo also has to counter the campaigns of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

On January 18, while launching a series of development projects worth over Rs 830 crore at a rally in Singur in Hooghly district – from where Mamata’s anti-land acquisition agitation against the Tata plant two decades ago had helped propel the TMC to power – PM Modi attacked the TMC government for its “anti-industry” policies.

Ten days later, Mamata held her own rally in Singur to counter this narrative, announcing projects worth 33,551 crore for Bengal. She inaugurated and laid foundation stones of 1694 projects of state government including the Ghatal master plan.

Another challenge being faced by Mamata has come in the form of the plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Supreme Court, seeking a CBI probe into the alleged obstruction by the CM and state police officers during the ED’s raids at the Kolkata premises of the political consultancy firm I-PAC and its director Pratik Jain last month.

During these raids, Mamata reached these I-PAC premises. She was seen bringing out files and a laptop, alleging that the ED was trying to take away her party’s poll plans. The ED has accused her of allegedly tampering with evidence in its probe in a money-laundering case.

From her Singur rally, Mamata said if she is arrested and jailed, the women of Bengal will rise in protest.
The CM has also mounted her attempts to woo the Hindu voters, laying foundation stones for Durga Angan and Mahakal temples in New Town and Siliguri over the last few weeks. Last April, she inaugurated a Jagannath temple in Digha.

For Mamata, garnering the support of a sizeable section of Hindu voters is as important as consolidating her Muslim base. This is especially crucial for the TMC in several Hindu-dominated districts of North Bengal which emerged as strongholds for the BJP in the 2021 polls.