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At the signing of the historic India-Bangladesh land boundary agreement in Dhaka, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ensured she was the star of the show, despite the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The new-found friendship between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre followed closely by the landslide victory of the TMC in the municipal elections last month has put Banerjee back in the saddle.
While the government was keen to ratify the land boundary as well as the Teesta water sharing agreements, Banerjee gave her nod only to the former. With Assembly polls coming up in 2016, she was not going to risk the ire of north Bengal. New Delhi could do little but acquiesce. Until a few months ago, TMC's fortunes were affected with many of its leaders enmeshed in the Saradha chit fund scam. The acrimony between Banerjee's party and the BJP-led Centre saw TMC MPs hold protests in Parliament daily. The TMC accused the BJP of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for political gain.
With the TMC being written off and questions raised about Banerjee's credibility, at least a dozen TMC leaders including former Union minister Dinesh Trivedi were looking for improved political prospects elsewhere. It was widely speculated in January that Trivedi was headed to the BJP camp. He had met BJP president Amit Shah, was photographed at Shah's son's wedding in February and was openly hobnobbing with the BJP.
Banerjee surprised political analysts by undertaking an organisational reshuffle. Long-time aide and TMC's Rajya Sabha leader Mukul Roy was sidelined and Trivedi was appointed vice-president. "Roy had been grilled by the CBI in connection with Saradha. By clipping Roy's wings, Mamata sent out a clear signal of course correction. She proved once again how politically astute she is," said a senior party leader.
Manjul Krishna Thakur, a former West Bengal minister who had joined the BJP in January but suffered a humiliating defeat in the Bongaon bypolls, has written an apology letter to Banerjee and is keen to come back to the party.
Acutely conscious of the upcoming state elections in 2016, Banerjee has at the same time gone the extra mile to put on an industry-friendly face. She undertook her first official visit to Singapore last year with a high-level business delegation. It included several Marwari businessmen who were former directors of the AMRI hospital, such as R S Goenka, Manish Goenka and Aditya Aggarwal. The AMRI hospital fire in 2011 ended up putting the Marwari business community on logger heads with the Bengal chief minister.
The CM is now bent on an image change and is openly wooing industry; a far cry from the days when Ratan Tata described Banerjee as the "Bad M" due to her opposition to the Nano car factory in the state.
Meanwhile, the TMC raised eyebrows when it helped a numerically deficient BJP-led government clear the coal Bill in the Rajya Sabha, the Mines Bill, the long-pending Land Boundary Agreement and made it clear that it was not opposed to the goods and services tax.
Rejecting the perception of the 'bonhomie', a TMC leader told Business Standard: "Banerjee is far more politically savvy than other leaders can ever be. While giving the impression of mellowing her stand, she has not conceded an inch on issues the TMC is fundamentally opposed - insurance Bill, land Bill, the Teesta water agreement."
Gone is the earlier aggressive public stance of the TMC. It coincided with the softening of stance by the Modi-led government and according to Banerjee's critics, "Saradha cases going on the back burner." On the other hand, the BJP's gambit of not taking on board any TMC defectors to keep Banerjee in their good books proved costly. It failed to make any inroads into Bengal in the municipal elections. In the civic polls, touted as the semi-final to the Assembly polls in 2016, the TMC swept 72 of the 92 municipal bodies and won 114 of the 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
"The middle class is back with her (Banerjee) as are the minorities because there is no credible alternative. The poorer sections, even those who were affected by the Saradha scam, have forgiven her, " said Abdul Mian, a long-time TMC supporter.
Having left her political opponents the Left, Congress and the BJP far behind, Banerjee's prospects for a second term in office seem exceedingly bright.
