West Bengal civic polls: Did Modi-Shah go soft on Mamata?
The recent civic polls in West Bengal were being considered as dress rehearsals for the all important state assembly polls in mid-2016. Out of 92 civic bodies which went to polls, Trinamool Congress (TMC) secured an overwhelming majority in 71 of them. The Left Front won five municipalities, followed by four for Congress and zero for BJP. Though BJP's overall tally increased from just 10 wards in 2010 to 85 in 2015, the results have proved that dislodging TMC from power in 2016 will be a gargantuan task.
However, beyond the usual hullaballoo over why the BJP performed so badly after having gained so much ground in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, there is ample evidence to suggest that the central BJP leadership took the civic polls too lightly. Here are four reasons why:
1. No deployment of central forces: The state unit of BJP in Bengal was left red-faced when the Centre refused their demand for sending central forces for the civic elections especially Kolkata, even though the demand was made much before the poll dates. A BJP delegation had even met the state election commissioner Sushanta Ranjan Upadhaya to postpone the civic polls until and unless Central forces were available for the state's civic elections, but the demand wasn't accepted. Though 2,700 personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) were deployed for polls at the last minute in other cities owing to violence in the Kolkata polls, they didn't come from other states and were just re-deployed from the existing forces in Bengal.
2. No campaigning from top leaders: In September 2014, BJP president Amit Shah had campaigned for the party candidates who contested by-elections in two assembly seats of Chowringhee in the city and Basirhat (South) in North 24-Parganas district, but this time neither Shah nor any other top BJP leader visited the state or campaigned for the polls.
3. Slowdown on the Saradha Scam investigation: Post chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting in March, there has been a considerable slowdown in the Saradha scam investigation. Unlike the other three accused TMC leaders, accused Mukul Roy was treated with much leniency and wasn't arrested.
4. Support in Rajya Sabha: Though TMC vehemently opposed the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, post Mamata's meeting with Modi, TMC has supported the BJP on various bills in the Rajya Sabha, which has drawn severe criticism from the Left front. It appears that Mamata did manage to strike a beneficial deal with Modi in return for her support in the upper house.
The Mamata-Modi meeting marked a significant change in central BJP's attitude towards TMC and Bengal. As substantiated above, it is clear that the BJP cleverly compromised the civic polls in Bengal to garner TMC's support. After the smooth passage of bills in Rajya Sabha, Bengal BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh said that they would unleash a series of attacks on TMC and step up the heat, but evidently, the central BJP leadership thought otherwise and reciprocated Mamata's gesture. Though the state assembly polls are due in mid-2016, it will be interesting to observe how this newly formed relationship plays out in the coming months.