 "vote, election, polls")
The view from the new Howrah bridge in Kolkata is all blue and white. All government buildings, flyovers, schools, colleges, madrasas, hospitals, pavements and even some police vans in the city don the same colour combination. The view is no different in other parts of West Bengal.
There are several theories about the ruling party's new fetish. Some say Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants to erase the last traces of the Left's red from public memory. Others think she is probably driven by astrological advice. Whatever the reason, many argue it is the only change following the change of regime in 2011, after 34 years of uninterrupted Left rule.
Read more from our special coverage on "WEST BENGAL POLLS"
More Left than Left?
In all other aspects, the CM seems to have copied the Left and tried to beat the communists at their own game. Whether the ingenious instrument known as "scientific rigging" or extending state patronage to new groups to win them over to her party, the TMC regime has followed the Left tradition, and also taken it to new levels.
In a 2012 article, the Washington Post called her the personification of "populist force in India", following her attempts, among others, to block even a token rise in railway passenger fares. Her opposition to liberal economic policies is known. Those who have followed her politics for years say she has been appropriating the Left's symbolism to oppose it. "She has done that to gain respectability among the Bengali middle-class who got disenchanted with Left rule," says Kolkata-based political commentator Rajat Roy.
What once used to be popularly known as "cadre raj", where each decision at the local level had to have clearance from workers of Left parties, has been replaced by "syndicates". There are reports of cartels at work which force buyers to source construction material from them at inflated rates. The Left regime where party workers used to have a say in all aspects of life was replaced by a regime that works on the principle of "local domination through extra-economic coercion," observes Kumar Rana of the Kolkata-based Pratichi Institute.
When it comes to extending state patronage, Banerjee has gone one-up on the Left. From giving grants to 7,000-odd clubs, mostly filled with party workers, to recruiting nearly 130,000 civic police volunteers (also derisively called half-police), she has taken the Left legacy forward.
In most of her rallies, Mamata never forgets to highlight the Rs 2 a kg rice scheme for nearly 80 million people as one of her biggest achievements. Are the people as receptive, especially when unemployment rates, both in rural and urban Bengal, are at fairly elevated levels compared to the national average?
"We do not want subsidised rice or free bicycles. We have had enough of that. Give us jobs, so that we get the purchasing power to buy these items ourselves," says Vishwanath Mukherjee of Paripat village in North 24 Parganas district.
West Bengal needs jobs, possible only if the state revives its industries and evolves an investor-friendly system. The Left regime was seen to be not doing enough of that. Paradoxically, it was replaced by a regime seen to be even more populist and leftist in symbolism. "TMC has to reinvent itself" to be a long-term alternative in Bengal politics, argues Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, a Kolkata-based political scientist. But, he adds, it tasted electoral success by espousing ultra-left programmes and abandoning these might not be easy.
Indifference to corruption?
Even as the state is going to vote for the final phase of protracted assembly elections in a few days, it has to resolve the electorate's seeming indifference to cases of corruption. Just a few months after the sordid story of the Saradha scam that impacted nearly 1.7 million investors and scores of brokers and agents came to light, the TMC, whose key functionaries are alleged to have played a role in the growth of this Ponzi scheme, did remarkably well in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Commentators argue the TMC managed the ramifications well. First, by providing financial assistance to nearly 200,000 investors. "I remember aggrieved agents used to come to the TMC headquarters in Kolkata and sit in dharna there. But, the party managed to convince them and through them to depositors that their interests would be taken care of. TMC also managed to defuse the crisis by driving home the point that the Saradha scheme had originated during the previous regime. Voters gave the new government the benefit of the doubt," says a Delhi-based commentator who tracks state politics.
Commentators say the impact of recent revelations of some TMC leaders allegedly taking money to get work done for companies would be seen during the elections. "What is known as the Narada scam has had its impact on the internal dynamics of the TMC. Mamata Banerjee was in denial mode initially and has become defensive. Some TMC leaders have begun saying the money was not taken for personal gains. These things are likely to play out after elections too," observes another Delhi-based analyst.
For the voters, though, the delivery of the fruits of a promised poriborton (change) by Mamata Banerjee is a far bigger issue. "The TMC wants to take credit for the very little it has done and so much it claims it has done but we cannot see it. I am aware of Narada and Saradha. But, before casting my vote, I will ask myself whether my life has changed in the past five years," says Ansar Sheikh while intensely watching a game of cards near the historic site of the battle of Plassey in Nadia district.
Anger with Left and TMC
The sense one gets after touring the state and talking to people is that there is some disenchantment with the TMC because of the perception that it did not quite deliver on promises. But, people are not positively inclined towards the Left. There is some scepticism about the coming together of the erstwhile bitter rivals, the Left and the Congress.
"We have not forgotten the atrocities of the Left days. And, we are not happy with the way the TMC has done pretty much the same thing in the past five years. It is like no choice for us," says a Muslim trader in the Nanoor market of Birbhum district. Nanoor has been witness to violent political clashes since 2000, claiming many lives.
Given the way things are, an alternative political force, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this case, had a chance to find traction, say observers. But, other than BJP flags and occasional posters, some even in Hindi, it was very hard to find instances of the saffron party occupying mind space in a sizeable section. "The BJP might win a few seats but is not a decisive force yet in state politics," says Sumanta Banerjee, who writes regularly for the Economic and Political Weekly.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won two seats in the state, with an impressive vote share of 17 per cent. It led in 22 assembly segments and came second in another 11. Why has the party seemingly failed to build on those gains? "Other than occasional bursts of good performance, the BJP has been close to getting only four-five per cent of votes," says Rajat Roy.
West Bengal, as part of undivided Bengal, had a history of very violent communal clashes in the pre-Independence days. The riots in 1946, known as the Great Calcutta killings and also described by Time magazine as one of the "most horrifying" religious riots of the 20th century, claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in three days. There were a series of riots between 1946 and 1950. However, it has been relative calm since then. "I will say the events of 1946 to 1950 were aberrations," argues Ray Chaudhury.
The reason why the state has stayed on the course of communal harmony is that Muslims here are poor and mostly rural, argues Kumar Rana, adding others don't feel threatened by their presence. "Another feature of Muslims in the state is that they consider themselves to be Bengali first and Muslims only after," he adds.
Observers say that given the nature of inter-community relations here for decades after the Partition, right-wing forces have found it hard to make electoral gains. "Even the migration of people from Bangladesh and the perceived fear of demographic changes is a non-issue, as the movement of people is reduced to a trickle now," says the Delhi-based commentator. The BJP has been harping on the theme of movement of cattle across the border rather than people in these elections.
