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| Edited By: Arghya Roy Chowdhury |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Oct 30, 2014, 09:57 PM IST
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central team which was on its path to violence-hit Makra village in West Bengal's Birbhum district was apprehended on Thursday and arrested for violating Section 144 of CrPC. BJP has vehemently protested the crackdown, calling it a way to gag the opposition in the state. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government though is unlikely to back down from its strong stance. If one looks at the political history of Bengal through the last one and a half decades, one can't help but wonder that the battle lines are slowly being drawn for a bloody fight for political domination leading up to the assembly elections of 2016.
West Bengal is still a largely rural and semi-urban state, and often the key to political domination lies with controlling the cadres at the grassroots level. All throughout the 2000s, there have been tussles for political domination between the Left and Trinamool. Mamata Banerjee's party took on the might of the Left in a feisty manner and names like Keshpur, Nanur, Chamkaitala, Garbeta etc became well known for witnessing bloody political clashes between the two parties. On Mamata's behest, a couple of NDA teams even visited Bengal to see 'state sponsored terrorism'. The Vajpayee government, though sympathetic to the TMC, stopped short of carrying out Didi's demand to implement President's rule in the state.
The modus operandi those days was intimidating the opposition through the might of force, often in the garb of mass resistance. In this way, each party tried to control large areas to establish complete political domination. Depending on their fluctuating fortune, political control over villages changed hands. But by and large, the Left could hold their organisation up to 2006. However, once Nandigram and Singur happened, the tide shifted completely towards the TMC. Sensing a palpable shift in the public mood, the ground level workers changed sides fast and the process of TMC's domination of rural Bengal was complete in almost a bloodless coup.
However, nothing in politics is steady forever. The Bengal government has virtually misused the huge mandate people gave them in 2011, by showing outstanding lack of direction in almost every sphere of development. From industry to agriculture, the state hasn't really shown any signs of progress or resurgence. Added to that has been the persistent bad press from the Saradha scam and several cases of intolerance shown by the ruling regime towards dissent. Still, the state voted emphatically for TMC in the 2014 general elections thanks to a strong organisation of the ruling party and also a lack of any credible opposition.
But BJP is looking to fill up that vacuum very fast. It got 17% of the votes for the first time in May this year. In the subsequent by-election, Shamik Bhattacharya of BJP got elected to the state assembly. The saffron party has continued its upward surge from then on. There are consistent reports of disgruntled TMC workers from the grassroots levels joining the BJP. These workers, often political mercenaries, are well adapted with strategy of TMC. Thus the way TMC fought with the Left by banking on disgruntled CPIM workers, BJP is looking for the same strategy.
There are some reservations within the saffron party about admitting disgruntled TMC workers, but for now they are sticking to it as the party is in an expansionist mode. In Makra also, three people were killed, of which two were BJP workers who formally put their allegiance on Didi's name. BJP sent a central team in June and now again in October. The message Amit Shah is seeking to send to his cadres is that the party is serious about Bengal. In Rahul Sinha, they have a young credible face to lead the mass movement. But TMC will likely to fight tooth and nail to stop the saffron surge in the state. It is already in damage control mode by expelling controversial leaders and downsizing others who were giving a bad name to the party. But it will not shy away from the turf battle either.
What makes this possible fight for political domination in Bengal more dangerous is that for the first time communal polarisation may emerge as an issue in the state. A perception has been created that Mamata Banerjee's government is not keen on cracking down on terror cells fearing the desertion of minority votes. The Burdwan blast and subsequent police action - or rather, the lack of it - was used by BJP to drive home that point.
Communal polarisation has slowly started to take place, especially in the districts of Bengal bordering Bangladesh. The state needs to be vigilant on their part so that all terror modules are busted promptly. Mamata Banerjee needs to stand up and control the law and order situation firmly. Police should be allowed to work without any fear. Else the law and order situation of the state has the potential to go on a tailspin on the run up to the polls in 2016.
