TMC on course correction drive in Bengal with multi-pronged approach

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), in consultation with political strategist Prashant Kishor, has designed a ‘course correction drive’ to recover from the losses the party suffered in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the TMC’s tally came down from 34 to 22 while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s rose from two to 18.

The ‘course-correction drive’ is also designed to prime the TMC for the assembly elections next year.

The drive, which has unfolded over the past three to four months, has four aspects --- a ‘constituency-specific approach’, a three-tier system of surveillance on party leaders and the administration to check malpractices and highhandedness, avoiding unnecessary confrontation with the Centre and targeting deprived socio-economic groups that have voted for the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls.

“The constituency-specific approach was taken after realising how the BJP has gained from the community-specific work of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” said a senior TMC minister, who did not want to be identified.

RSS, the parent organisation of BJP, works especially among the state’s backward classes, the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Communities (OBC) through an array of organisations such as Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Shree Hari Satsang Samiti and Sewa Bharati. Bengal BJP’s refugee cell and RSS’ Bastuhara Sahayata Samiti has been active among Hindu migrants from Bangladesh.

Over the past three months, TMC revived its virtually defunct SC, ST, and OBC cells, whose new state unit chief, Paresh Chandra Das, is travelling across the state. The TMC has also launched a refugee cell headed by Mukul Chandra Bairagyo, a leader of refugees.

On B R Ambedkar’s birth anniversary (April 14), TMC plans to gather 2.5 lakh people from SC communities in 277 assembly constituencies for the felicitation of influential Dalit faces. A similar programme for the ST community will be held in 97 tribal dominated constituencies on April 19, TMC party leaders said.

The state government has also relaxed norms for obtaining caste certificates, regularised colonies of Hindu migrants from Bangladesh and granted the inhabitants unconditional land rights, announced monthly pension plans for senior citizens from the SC and ST communities, and has launched a housing scheme for the tribal population in the tea gardens.

An attempt to assuage these communities is based on data from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which Muslims, who are 27.01% of the state’s population, emerged as TMC’s major support base. But, in the areas dominated by the backward classes the BJP performed much better than the TMC. Of Bengal’s 84 seats reserved for the SC and ST communities, the BJP was leading in 46 seats, while TMC was ahead of others in 37.

Backward classes account for one-third of Bengal’s population of 90.3 million, according to the census of 2011. About 23.5% of state’s population belongs to SC communities and 5.8% to STs. About 7% of the state’s population is of OBCs, according to state government data.

“Bengal had no experience with caste politics and we neglected addressing castes separately. However, the SC, ST, OBC cell is now being activated up to gram panchayat level,” Das, TMC’s Lok Sabha member from Burdwan East, said.

Pshephologist Biswanath Chakraborty, a professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University, said even though the TMC always depended on Mamata Banerjee’s “general appeal” to the masses, the party has started addressing different communities, specifically to attract voters from the deprived sections, which appeared to have weaned leaned the BJP in Lok Sabha polls.

Dilip Ghosh, BJP’s Bengal unit president, said, “She (Mamata Banerjee) is trying to fool people by taking some cosmetic measures. The backward classes have made up their minds. They know what harm infiltrators and TMC’s extortion-Raj has done to them.”

Ghosh also mocked at TMC’s internal surveillance system. “Who will believe this eyewash? Everybody saw in Narada sting operation (2016) tapes that MPs and ministers were taking cash. Did TMC act against anyone?” Ghosh asked.

The surveillance mechanism is made of the grievance cell at the chief minister’s office, which get complaints through Didi ke Bolo (Tell Didi) telephone helpline managed by Kishor’s organisation, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). In the first 30 days from the launch on July 29, 2019, about a million people reached out to Didi ke Bolo helpline. CM Banerjee had announced on August 29 that 42 % of these people reported grievances, 32 % gave suggestions and 22 % conveyed appreciatory messages.

TMC legislator and party spokesperson Snehasis Chakraborty said it was not possible to provide accurate data or an estimate on the number of complaints received.

“Didi ke Bolo has created surveillance on anyone acting against the interest of the people, be it by indulging in corruption or misbehaviour with the people. If a complaint is received against party leaders and is found to be true, the leaders are asked to apologise and correct themselves,” Chakraborty said.

Its impact is visible on ground, as a TMC legislator from Hooghly district, said, “We are all under surveillance.”

Maidul Islam, a political science professor at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, said some results of TMC’s course correction drive are becoming visible. “The party has managed to create the impression that it is learning from people’s mandate against it,” Islam said.

Indicating another strategy change, TMC leaders said the CM is not targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah as much as she used to do earlier. She had met Modi and Shah twice between September 2019 and February 2020, unlike after cyclone Fani, she refused to speak to Modi over phone on issues related to disaster management, TMC leaders said.

Also, Banerjee has developed a working relationship with governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar since February, after accusing him for months for interfering in the government, which experts described as another bid to portray her as non-confrontationist. Dhankhar was appointed as state governor on July 30, 2019.

“Banerjee is trying to portray herself as an administrator who does not bring politics into administration. However, the party’s acid test is to ensure free and fair civic elections. A repeat of the terror and violence of 2018 rural elections will ruin all gains she made in the past few months,” political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay said.

Explaining the party’s focus on ideological issues, a senior TMC minister said that opposition to Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) will remain at the center of the party’s political campaign for the civic polls.

According to a TMC district unit president who did not want to be named, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, and Prashant Kishor told leaders from all districts during a meeting in Kolkata on March 3 that the party was determined to conduct the coming civic polls free from violence and other malpractices. “The party does not want to earn a bad reputation and lose the state by trying to win a few municipal wards,” the district unit president said.