While not a saga of political morality, the recent civic elections in West Bengal may be a tale of realism for rivals of the ruling Trinamul Congress lorded over by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The result does more to burnish Ms Banerjee’s credentials as the state’s pre-eminent leader than any amount of government propaganda could, even if it does not necessarily blind the state’s electorate to the more glaring faults of the CM and her government, besides inviting attention to its inability to deliver on promises.
The Trinamul Congress won 71 out of the 92 municipalities, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. It may be an open question if the ruling party can pull off a proportionate result in the Assembly election next year. But it is clear that its rival parties have to do much to raise their profile to a level that matters.
The BJP, in particular, needs to watch out. After the Lok Sabha poll last May, in which the saffron party exceeded its own hopes riding on the name of its PM candidate Narendra Modi, the mood in the party cannot but be hopelessly down after the municipal result. It would be an understatement to say that the party was routed in the first statewide test it faced after its ignominious defeat in the Delhi Assembly election last February.
This can’t be great news when the state polls in Bihar are just months away and the Modi government in New Delhi is battling on many fronts as it prepares to observe its first anniversary. The BJP’s dismal showing in the West Bengal municipal arena is what draws attention to the polls, which were certainly not about the state of street lighting, road repair, or water supply at the local level. BJP chief Amit Shah has been going on and on about his party’s membership drive and about storming the citadel. He could profit from adopting a more sober approach. The first lesson in India is, storming Delhi isn’t everything.
Since the BJP proved a no-show on a statewide basis, it was naturally the traditional parties of the state — the CPM and Congress — which gave Ms Banerjee’s bailiwick the whiff of a much-needed Opposition. The BJP’s voting percentage dropped in Kolkata but it did retain some of its vote share in the mega-city. Some hope may, thus, still linger.
But Congress did well in its traditional bases in North Bengal and Murshidabad and the CPM performed creditably on the whole. If indications of minority votes peeling away from Trinamul strengthen, the Left and the Congress could gain. But the real lesson is that Ms Banerjee should spruce up her act as no one counts more than her for now in the state.
