The battle for Bengal is on. The intellectual Buddhadeb vs the feisty Mamata. If the early trends are anything to go by, Mamata will lead her coalition to power bringing the Left Front's 34 years of governance to an end.
The only common ground that both these leaders share is arrogance. Before becoming Chief Minister, Buddhadeb babu was an arrogant minister in Jyoti Basu's cabinet. Mamata is not only arrogant but is outright rude more often than not. If elected to power, Mamata should not mistake the verdict as people's choice. It will be more out of disgust and apathy against the ruling Left Front government than a choice. The mandate given to her will have no upheaval expectations, as the people of Bengal has somewhat ensconced themselves with the thought of what can be worse.
On the other hand, the Indian National Congress, whilst creating all the hullabaloo should remember that they are only to be blamed for the sorry state that they are in. In the last 34 years, they have not been able to gather ground to create a strong opposition. The central leadership of the party did neither invest in human resource nor in financial resource to resurrect the party in Bengal. With Mr. Dasmunsi not around to manage the party in Bengal and Pranab babu too occupied with matters of national importance, it is left to the likes of Manas Bhuiya and Deepa Dasmunsi to create a strong Congress. Forgetting that the Congress at this juncture needs to play a second fiddle to Trinamool Congress, Deepa Dasmunsi is quite vociferous in her diatribes against Mamata, which even Mr. Dasmunsi at best avoided.
So with Congress almost a non-entity and BJP a no-goer, the people of Bengal is stuck between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. In the last eleven years, Buddhadeb has not been able to win confidence of people in regard to economic development. Be it Singur or Nandigram or for that matter the projects in the electronic city, Buddhadeb has taken a heavy beating when it came to industrialisation and job-creation. It will be noteworthy to see what Mamata outlines in her manifesto regarding job opportunities and job creations. Having forced the present government to shelve Singur and Nandigram, Mamata will find it extremely difficult to industrialise the state.
Whatever is the outcome of the assembly elections, people of Bengal is worried. The fear of blood-bath looms large and so does the fear of anarchy.
Picture source: Google Images
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