Mamata played her cards with care, stole Left’s thunder

Kolkata: If the historic victory in Bengal boils down to anything, then it’s Mamata’s dogged determination to fight on despite all the odds. The Tatas may have driven out of Singur in 2008. The Nandigram land acquisition never took off. But at the end of the day, these turned out to be political masterstrokes for Mamata. Slowly but gradually, the TMC chief made inroads into the Left bastion and beat them at their own game.Banerjee took full advantage of the acquisition scare among the minorities in rural areas and her declared stand against special economic zones endeared her to a section of traditional Left Front supporters, who did not like hobnobbing with big capital. With her ‘Ma-Mati-Manush’ slogan, she hijacked the issues dear to the Left supporters -- pension, the insurance and banking sector, privatisation, land acquisition in Nandigram and Singur, Rizwanur Rahman’'s death and the Sachar Commission report.[caption id="attachment_9505" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee is ready to be the next chief minister of West Bengal. Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters"][/caption]Banerjee played her cards so well that she won over certain sections that were gunning for her till the other day. She was wooed by industrialists and even Left parties. A staunch Left-wing party like SUCI, which has bases in pockets of Bengal, is now an ally of Trinamool Congress.They helped give a direction to Banerjee’s brand of politics, which hitherto had a one-point agenda of blind opposition to the CPM.When Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee with his ‘Brand Buddha’ image started on the slippery path of industrialisation through the private sector, Banerjee checkmated him on every front. This brought her a series of electoral victories in the panchayat elections, municipal polls, Lok Sabha elections and a string of assembly bypolls after that.But her chances in 2011 was largely due to her continuing to project herself as the leader of the poor and the rural have-nots, a friend of the minorities, a champion of inclusive growth and one genuinely interested in delivering the goods.PTI