Mamata is a cat on a hot tin roof with BJP in Bengal
2014 has been a disastrous year for regional parties. With the BJP disrupting years old caste equations across many states and virtually dominating every major election, regional parties have been left to wonder about their future existence.
Ever since BJP’s resounding Lok Sabha win, BJP President Amit Shah has marshaled his resources on expanding the party in eastern states with West Bengal being top priority. Although BJP doesn’t have a strong base in West Bengal, it won 2 seats and received a vote share of 16.8 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections, their highest ever. An Indian Express report revealed that the number of Trinamool-BJP clashes have surged manifold from just 13 in 2012 to 196 in just the first seven months of 2014. These are definite signs that BJP is emerging as a formidable competitor to the Trinamool in the 2016 assembly elections and not surprisingly, Mamata seems to know it very well.
Although 2016 elections are quite a few months away, going by the current scenario, Mamata seems to have pressed the panic button too soon. Her recent spate of unending verbal attacks appears to be the outcome of her growing insecurity about 2016. Starting off with her comment “Modi is media, media is Modi”, she has not left a single opportunity to attack BJP. Even party spokesperson Derek O Brien accused the RSS of having stage-managed the Burdwan blast and called Ajit Doval a “known RSS sympathiser”.
If comments and scornful criticism wasn’t enough, Trinamool MPs sat on a dharna flashing their umbrellas to protest against the Centre for failing to bring back the black money, which again, seemed like shooting in the air.
Undoubtedly, Mamata is gasping for breath amidst a never before imaginable political scenario. With the BJP ruthlessly toppling regional superpowers, with not even its long time ally Shiv Sena being spared, Trinamool, inevitably, seems to be the next in line. Her over-arching favouritism for Muslims and madrassas, her shoddy handling of rape cases and alleged involvement of Trinamool MPs in the Saradha scam are working against her. The growing bitterness of Hindus towards Mamata offers a fitting platform for BJP to propagate their Hindutva agenda. During her interview with NDTV, she said that the responsibility of controlling border terrorism lies with the Centre but she forgot that the very border lies within her administration and the very people residing within those borders voted her to power.
Although Modi hasn’t responded to any of Mamata’s comments till now, which nonetheless, is highly unlikely, she needs to stop making preposterous statements.