If nothing else, she is a fighter. She hit the streets to end the historic left rule in Bengal, made a car giant take a U-turn out of the state and even defended her turf against the mighty Modi wave. For crores of Bengalis, she is first their didi and then a politician. And it is this connect that has kept her in the chief minister’s chair for 15 years.
The Trinamool Congress knows that it is her face that wins votes, irrespective of the candidates the party puts up. And it is this image of the leader that it is projecting—a protector of Bengali culture taking on outsiders (BJP leaders) who don’t understand what the state stands for.
The BJP, in reply, claims Banerjee has ruined the state with lack of industry, jobs and employment. And this seems to be persuading a lot of voters. From three seats in the 2016 assembly elections with a 10.3 per cent vote share, to 77 in 2021 with a 38.1 per cent vote share, the BJP has grown fast in the state.
“Her appeasement politics did not benefit the Muslims; she did not give them jobs and there is no development,” said leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari, once a Trinamool heavyweight.
A hot topic in Bengal this election season is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter rolls. The BJP is for the exercise—which weeds out illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Rohingyas from Myanmar—and has accused Banerjee of shielding these infiltrators for vote bank politics.
Banerjee has alleged that genuine voters were being removed, and has presented her arguments in the Supreme Court in person. Notably, after the revision, the names of around 90 lakh voters have been deleted. In the list published on February 28, Banerjee’s constituency of Bhabanipur alone has around 47,000 deletions. She lashed out at the BJP and the Election Commission over the deletions, but also vowed to fight for those she claims were unfairly removed. Trinamool workers have been assisting voters on ground for the past eight months to get their documents in place, which the party says has established a strong people connect that would pay off in the elections.
Banerjee started her campaign in Bhabanipur on March 22, addressing party workers and booth-level agents. “Why do people from across the state see me in Bhabanipur? Because they know I belong here,” she said. “Everyone in every household here knows me. There were many discussions about whether I should change my residence, but I did not. We all continue to live here. My mother did not allow me to change this house. Many people have visited me at this residence.”
Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee has asked party workers to ensure a victory margin of at least 60,000 votes in Bhabanipur, and he would be banking on the slogan ‘Ghor er Meye’ (daughter of the house), which positions Banerjee as the voters’ own.
The fact that she continues to live in the same house from before she became chief minister—at Harish Chatterjee Street in Bhabanipur—portrays her as a leader who does not care for fanfare. For her, it’s about the connect with people.
The Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), which works on ground with Trinamool workers, says the biggest advantage for Banerjee is her relatability—for the voters, Didi is an approachable figure who, like them, comes from the streets. What also favoured the Trinamool in the 2021 assembly elections, said I-PAC, are the social welfare schemes for villagers.
“It is difficult to isolate how Didi is today from the legend built in the past 40 to 50 years,” said Arjun Dutta, a senior I-PAC member. “She has this irresistible bond with the public. People of West Bengal say Mamata has guts, whether or not they vote for her. There is a surreal respect for her, which has been built out of that legend.”
The Lakshmir Bhandar scheme for rural women, started ahead of the 2021 elections, turned the needle in Banerjee’s favour. Her government increased the amount over time, with the current monthly amount being Rs1,500 and Rs1,700 for general and reserved categories, respectively. “If Didi is giving Lakshmir Bhandar to 1.5 crore women, it is not that those 1.5 crore women have voted only for her,” said Dutta. “It is universal—a BJP or left supporter could also get the amount. If she is making roads under the Pathashree-Rastashree project, she has given them en masse.”
Other schemes like Yuva Sathi, a dole for unemployed youth between 21 and 40, or a monthly honorarium for priests and muezzins, have also won hearts and votes for Banerjee.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma did it in Assam, Nitish Kumar did it in Bihar. Mamata is also doing it. This is a neoliberal populist move,” said Zaad Mahmood, professor of political science at Presidency University.
The BJP has repeatedly slammed Banerjee’s dole politics, asking her to instead create employment to strengthen the economy and give back to the state exchequer. The Trinamool, however, says empowering rural masses with money helps increase the state’s GDP. “If the poor get money, they get purchasing power,” said Trinamool MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay. “When they buy something, automatically production will increase, which helps to increase the GDP of the state.”
The other accusation levelled against Banerjee is that, despite being a woman, she has turned a blind eye to crimes against women, be it the sexual assault allegations against Trinamool leader Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali or the rape and murder of a 31-year-old female doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College campus in Kolkata.
“The accused from the Trinamool have been given protection,” claimed Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his March visit to Kolkata. “Lawyers in the R.G. Kar case were elevated to the Rajya Sabha as a reward, women in Sandeshkhali were exploited. In the Durgapur college rape case, questions were raised on why the victim went out. What kind of Bengal has been created, where the chief minister herself says that women should not go out.”
The Trinamool, though, brings up the rape cases in Unnao and Hathras, which happened in a BJP-ruled state, to counter this argument.
“Look at the way we handle atrocities against women and look at the way they do it,” said Shashi Panja, state women and child development minister. “It cannot be rape in your state versus my state. Rape is rape to a woman living anywhere in India. It should not happen.”
She added that Banerjee did not stay silent and did address the atrocities. “She doesn’t run away from it. She will speak on the Durgapur incident, she will speak on the R.G. Kar incident,” she said. “They said she went to offer money. Who would be so naïve as to offer money to the parents. A lot of things come up in the heat of the moment.”
Said Mahmood: “There is no taller contemporary leader in West Bengal politics than Mamata Banerjee. It is her time in opposition, what she has achieved, how she mobilises and her charisma that cannot be contested.”
However, he did add that corruption and faulty governance have been affecting Bengal badly. Where the Trinamool succeeds, he said, was distancing Banerjee from these problems. She is a simple woman who leads an austere life, wears a cotton sari and rubber chappals; there might be bad apples within the party, but Didi knows how to deal with them. “This is a false binary, but it helps the Trinamool,” said Mahmood. “[The voter thinks that] the local leader might possibly be corrupt, but once we reach out to Didi, we might get some respite.”
Seeking a fourth term as chief minister has its challenges. Banerjee is battling anti-incumbency, the fallout of SIR and charges of corruption. The Trinamool, however, is confident that her charisma will keep her firmly in her seat and the saffron forces at bay.