Is Mamata ready for Delhi\'s durbari politics?

It's generally said of Mamata Banerjee that her forays into national politics have revealed her deepest vulnerabilities. That they show her to be out of her depth in the eddies of durbari politics. Unmistakably, such an assessment is in contrast to Banerjee's phenomenal political achievements in her own state of West Bengal, the state she has been running as chief minister since June 2011. But aiming higher, the Trinamool Congress chief is now actively exploring the route to 7 Race Course Road. For the first time, the otherwise Bengal-obsessed leader is seriously weighing options of securing the prime ministerial mantle in a possible fractured post-poll scenario, two months from now.

Those familiar with Banerjee's political psyche have known her to be wedded — heart and soul — to Bengal: The state where, as a firebrand Congress activist, she had cut her teeth in politics, fought her many old guard detractors in the Congress party; where the 29-year-old first became MP, defeating the CPM's redoubtable Somnath Chatterjee in the prestigious Jadavpur constituency. For over three decades, standing her ground, Banerjee relentlessly fought CPM's 'impregnable' state machinery, becoming in that process, a frequent target of violence wrecked by CPM cadre.

Consider that as recent as in the 2006 assembly elections, the Left Front had increased its tally of seats from 199 to 235, leaving the Trinamool with merely 30 seats. Banerjee was written off as a spent force.

Neither the CPM nor the Trinamool would have anticipated the storm that was awaiting them only five years later; a storm that would blow away one and bring in another.

After three decades and more, Banerjee finally staged a triumphant entry into Kolkata's Writers' Buildings in 2011. Virtually single-handedly, she toppled the formidable Left Front government and marginalised the CPM to the position of an inconsequential player. Two years into hibernation, West Bengal's once all-powerful ruling party and equally then an indispensable kingmaker in Delhi, the CPI-M is yet to recover from the body blow dealt to it by the Trinamool Congress.

A supremely confident Banerjee, meanwhile, has spread her ambitious wings as far as Delhi. Her earlier talks of a federal front as a political imperative of contemporary times has grown louder. That she means serious post-election business with an eye on 7 Race Course is signalled from her recent talks with Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, as well as her clumsy attempt to team up with the Gandhian anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare.

But has Banerjee acquired the skills that she till recently lacked to play the big national game? If the recent and not so-recent events are any indication, it seems not. Recall how Mulayam Singh Yadav after leading Banerjee up the garden path in the last presidential election — their pact lasted just 36 hours — decided to change tack. A red-faced Banerjee was left clutching at the straws as the Samajwadi Party chief blithely switched his support to the Congress nominee Pranab Mukherjee following a late-night meeting with Sonia Gandhi. That was last year.

Recently, Banerjee suffered a similar embarrassment at the hands of Anna Hazare. A joint press conference by Banerjee and Hazare in the heart of the Capital was scheduled to be followed up with a joint rally at the expansive Ramlila grounds. If Banerjee had expected the rally to be a grand heralding of her prime ministerial ambition in the Capital, she was surely disappointed. Pleading ill health at the eleventh hour, Hazare refused to show up at the sparsely attended meeting. Abandoned by her new-found Gandhian ally, Banerjee had to plod through the lacklustre meeting all by herself.

Once again, the Trinamool chief found herself left high and dry in Delhi's ruthless power play. None of this would inspire confidence in Banerjee's ability to successfully negotiate her way through Delhi's corridors of power. But the numbers game — the ultimate pivot of coalition politics — is predicted to work in Banerjee's favour. Her party is expected to improve further upon its stellar 2009 Lok Sabha performance. That surely gives the Trinamool leader bargaining clout.

In her own way, Banerjee has created a political niche that she can privilege as her own. Despite the negative implications of the Sarada chit fund scam, Banerjee has managed to shield her own image of personal austerity financial integrity — both of which may appeal to the wider national audience.