Kolkata: Nine years ago, in the sweltering month of March, Kolkata witnessed an uneasy calm at the iconic 31, Alimuddin Street housing the state Communist Party of India (Marxist) office, popularly known as Muzaffar Ahmad Bhawan.
To be precise, it was Sunday, March 27, 2011.
A woman wearing slippers and a white sari was seen emerging out of the dust blanket thrown up by the footsteps of a sea of people in south Kolkata. Children with mothers, the elderly students, housewives, the physically challenged – everyone was seen marching behind her.
It was none other than Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee, popularly known as Didi. She was campaigning for senior party leaders Shovan Chatterjee from the Behala East constituency and Partha Chatterjee from Behala West for the assembly elections.
Wiping away sweat from her forehead, Mamata roared: “Aamra ora noi, aamra sobai (Not me and you, this is us).”
The slogan garnered a lot of attention and helped the TMC chief emerge as a mass leader with a subtle message that her duty is to serve all: irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Not only that; this also helped her to create a ‘Bangaliana’ face for the people of West Bengal.
Many in the Opposition allege that she is involved in appeasement of minorities but statistics present a different picture as Hindus have voted for her in large numbers in all the polls since 2011.
What happened next is well known – history was made as the 2011 assembly polls marked the defeat and end of the 34-year rule of the Left Front government in Bengal.
Mamata’s clout in Indian politics could be gauged when former President Pranab Mukherjee described her as a “born rebel”.
After years of her governance, Bengal seems to be changing colours and now it’s ‘saffron’ which has emerged as an immediate challenge for Mamata after the BJP secured 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats last year.
In between, a lot of water has flown under the bridge and a jolted Mamata roped in poll strategist Prashant Kishor to fix the chinks in her party’s armour on June 6, 2019, shortly after the parliamentary poll results came out.
Kishor created the ‘Didi Ke Bolo (Tell Didi)’ campaign which yielded results as the TMC won the Kaliaganj, Kharagpur and Karimpur assembly seats in the bypolls held late last year.
With central agencies zeroing in on several Trinamool leaders in connection with the Narada and Saradha scams, Mamata got a much-needed platform to bounce back from with the uproar triggered by the BJP-led central government’s moves on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), National Population Register (NPR) and the Citizenship Amendment Bill that later became an Act.
While the BJP was seemingly on the back foot, the Bengal chief minister got more ammunition to attack the saffron party after the Delhi riots and an opportunity recall her historic slogan.
“Though the phrasing this time is ‘Banglar Gorbo Mamata (Bengal’s pride Mamata)’ and not ‘Aamra ora noi, aamra sobai’, the narrative is clear. We want to give the message that we are here to embrace all, but these outsiders (the BJP) are trying to divide us,” a senior TMC leader said.
While elaborating more on ‘Banglar Gorbo Mamata’, he said, “The aim is to create an atmosphere of Trinamool across the state. This is a good concept and the party is certainly going to benefit from it ahead of the municipal and assembly polls. Actually, through this campaign, we will project the BJP as an outsider, which is a fact as Amit Shah knows nothing about Bengal. Our target will be to endorse Mamata as the saviour of all who are living peacefully in Bengal.”
The state poll panel is expected to announce dates for civic elections in a few days, being seen by analysts as a semi-final before the high-stakes assembly polls next year.
The TMC is projecting the CM as the fiercest protector and guardian of the ideals of justice, liberty and equality, as enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution.
“We will tell people that she is the true custodian of Bengal’s culture, its dignity and pride and they (BJP) are outsiders who do not even know how to pronounce names of great leaders like Swami Vivekananda. You must have noticed that our party supremo during her speech had said this. Also, she indirectly blamed the BJP for vandalising Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s bust. The speech was crafted to highlight them as outsiders because she wants people to know that a true Bengali can never misspell names of Vivekananda and a true Bengali will never vandalise Vidyasagar’s bust,” the TMC leader said.
The ‘Banglar Gorbo Mamata’ (BGM) is a 75-day extensive public outreach programme. It will start from March 2 and end on May 10.
It will involve the participation of more than 75,000 leaders and grassroots workers of the TMC, covering 15,000 of the most-populous habitations and directly reach out to nearly 2.5 crore people in Bengal.
The first phase of the campaign will have Trinamool Congress Kormi Sammelan (congregation of TMC workers) on March 7, 2020 to kick-start the campaign in all the 294 assembly constituencies.
From March 8 to March 14, there will be ‘Jolojoge Jogajog’ – informal meetings of the party leaders with around 2,500 media personnel in every assembly constituency.
As per Prashant Kishor’s plan, a list of 10-15 media personnel will provided by the party for each assembly seat. On the day of the meeting, TMC leaders will have an informal interaction with members of the local media.
On March 15, there will ‘Shikriti Sammelan’ – an event in every constituency to recognise and felicitate more than 10,000 veteran workers for their contribution towards building Trinamool Congress.
The second phase of the campaign will entail three activities: ‘Bongodhwani Jatra’ from March 20 to April 5, ‘Songhati Sabha’ on April 14 and ‘Chetona Sabha’ on April 19.
In ‘Bongodhwani Jatra’ – an extensive 15-day political procession will be carried out by TMC workers in all assembly seats. Trinamool cadres will have to visit and pay respects at three to four religious and socio-religious places of importance, meeting at least five influential people of each locality, have lunch at a party worker’s house, as well as pay respects and felicitate local heroes and achievers.
In ‘Songhati Sabha’, community meetings will be held between party leaders and more than 2.5 lakh members of the Scheduled Caste community in 277 assembly constituencies. The event will also cover grand celebrations of Ambedkar Jayanti and felicitation of key people from this segment.
During ‘Chetona Sabha’, meetings will take place involving Trinamool leaders and 50,000 members of the Scheduled Tribes in 97 assembly constituencies.
The third phase of ‘Banglar Gorbo Mamata’ will start on April 20 and end on May 10. This period will contain public meetings at panchayat, municipality and ward cluster levels under the banner of ‘Banglar Barta’.
Also, a grand ceremony will be held on May 3 under the banner of Nobin Boron Sabha to mark the joining of 1 lakh young individuals in the TMC.
There will an event ‘Bishishta Sammelan’ on May 8, to felicitate around 15,000 influential women in each assembly seat.
Finally, there will be ‘Trinamooler Sathe Manyojon’, from March 20 to May 8, a series of one-on-one meetings between key party leaders and around 25,000 influencers in all constituencies, and ‘Trinamool Padatik Sammelan’, a grand culmination of the campaign with a 1,500-km padyatra, or hike, across the state.
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