Home Minister Amit Shah played his politics well and taking it to a new height on March 28, 2021.
Firstly, he mounted pressure on Trinamool leadership by claiming the BJP will win 26 seats if not more out of the 30 seats polling was held on March 27. None other than Trinamool MP, Derek-O' Brien called it a 'mind game'. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, he did not deny a supposed behind the doors meeting he held with NCP chief Sharad Pawar sometime back possibly in Ahmedabad.
"Everything need not be made public," Shah told reporters when asked about the supposed meeting on Saturday.
Such a 'closed door' meeting came when Shiv Sena-led government is in crisis over Vazegate extortion racket involving a police personnel.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has given clean chit to its beleaguered Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. NCP took exception to Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut terming Deshmukh an “accidental Home Minister”.
The NCP hit back, with state Minister and party spokesman Nawab Malik refuting claims that Deshmukh was chosen “accidentally”. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that selecting ministers from the NCP quota was sole discretion of the party supremo Pawar.
In 2019, Sena formed government after parting ways from BJP and decided to ally with Congress and NCP.
Playing Victim: the Mamata Card
Trinamool leader Derek O' Brien tweeted to say 'mind games' by seat prediction would not work.
"Mind games won’t work, Mo-Sha (Modi-Shah). Try your seat prediction stunts at the Gujarat Gymkhana. This is Bengal. #KhelaHobe," he wrote.
New Delhi: A day after first phase of polling showed good turnout of voters in both West Bengal and Assam,BJP stalwart and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, on Sunday exuded confidence that his party has recorded"convincing victories" to these elections.
"We have got clear indications from our workers and party's poll machinery that we are winning more than 26 seats out of 30 and more than 37 out of 47 polls were in first phase in West Bengal and respectively,"Shah told a press conference here.
"We are only winning....we are also recording convincing and large margins of win," he said.
He claimed the mandate in both the states have been "positive". "In Assam people have given their approval for a strike and movement free Assam and for the new development initiatives undertaken under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
Lauding Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's rolein last five years, "there is big mandate for the development works". "The concept of Double Engine government has convinced the people of Assam," he said.
Referring to Bengal voting in the first phase on Saturday, March 27; Amit Shah said after the Leftists rule people had reposed hopes in the government of Mamata Banerjee.
"But it was only a symbolic change. Ruling party's name and leaders changed. But Bengal did not. It was stuck into the same status quo (wohin ka wohin)," the Home Minister lamented rather adding, "there was even further decline (in quality of governance).
The mandate of March 27 shows that the BJP has able to kindle a "ray of hope" among the voters bythe parry's vision of Sonar Bangla."Like any other state, people have started hoping now that even West Bengal can develop and can become Sujalam, Sufalam," said Mr Shah, who is often credited for crafting party's electoral strategy in the state where the saffron party did not have much of a presence even a few years back.
"People have now started believing that in Bengal too a government can uphold constitutional mechanism and run effectively without banking on minority appeasement," he said.
Even otherwise, the Mamata camp is unnerved by numerous factors. One of them is strong anti incumbency mood wherein Mamata's image has emerged as that of a Muslim appeaser.
There is immense 'trust deficit' now between the voters and the Trinamool Congress leadership.
Shah also complimented the Election Commission for holding the elections peacefully in Bengalon the first phase of polling.In the first phase, polling took place in all nine seats in Purulia, four in Bankura, six in Paschim Medinipur, four in Jhargram and seven seats in Purba Medinipur.
The excitement of all polling this year will be in Nandigram on April 1 when Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeis pitted against BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, a son of the soil in that region and a former lieutenant of Trinamool supremo.
However, Trinamool leader Derek O' Brien tweeted to say 'mind games' by seat prediction would not work. "Mind games won’t work, Mo-Sha (Modi-Shah). Try your seat prediction stunts at the Gujarat Gymkhana. This is Bengal. #KhelaHobe," he wrote.
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Importantly, Mamata Banerjee has already moved out of her original assembly Bhawanipore in Kolkata as her party’s vote share nosedived.
Mamata's‘Hindu love’: Trust Deficit is the key
What makes Mamata Banerjee 'Hindu' and what is the compulsion behind ?
BJP stalwart L K Advani had rightfully coined the term pseudo secular. Politicians of her category certainly fit into the cap of being the 'champions of pseudo secularism'. They would focus their polity and administrative powers to appease religious minorities – push vote bank strategy even over wrong issues; but during election season they could be spotted around temples.
Aiming not to offend Hindus, Mamata Banerjee has started chanting Hindu mantras and reciting Chandipath. This is called being a ‘political Hindu’.
"Most of what she has been saying in the name of Hindu mantras and Chandipath are wrong. She is often mis-pronouncing the words and missing out key terms making a mockery of Hinduism. People of Nandigram and my state will never forgive her," says Suvendu Adhikari, a former lieutenant of Mamata and now taking on the Chief Minister in a fierce contest.
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For long and not without good reasons, Mamata had an image of a 'Muslim appeaser' and has perhaps as a design kept herself away from Hindu rituals and practices. Her regime also had created hurdles for Goddess Durga statues immersion – an unthinkable episode in her state - as her administration moved heaven and earth to ensure smooth conduct of Muharam processions.
Her party certainly paid a price for these in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Now, she realises the importance of winning back Hindu support base, and thus she is trying to run the extra mile to be on the right side of the majority voters.
Ms Mamata visited more than half a dozen Hindu temples and chanted mantras in public places on the day she filed her nomination.
The Fall:
The Mamata camp is unnerved by numerous factors. One of them is strong anti incumbency mood. Secondly, a fierce challenge from the BJP and its candidate Suvendu to herself electorally at Nandigram.
Mamata Banerjee has already moved out of her original assembly Bhawanipore in Kolkata as her party’s vote share nosedived. Though Trinamool had managed a lead of 3168 in Bhawanipore assembly segment under Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 polls, the BJP had given her a shock as it managed a lead in Kolkata Municipal Corporation ward no 73, where Trinamool supremo resides. In fact, 17 of her ministers trailed in their respective seats.
But a more important reason that has made her party desperate about Hindu votes is the likelihood of split in her Muslim vote share due to formation of a formidable alliance between the Congress-Left-and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) of Abbas Siddiqui.
Trinamool leader Farid Hakim told senior colleagues Saugata Roy and Partha Chatterjee in a meeting in Kolkata that this alliance would "surely cut into" Trinamool’s vote share among Muslims.
This analysis is more of an admission for the earlier fault-line. The parliamentary elections in 2019 were proof, says Asansol-based educationist Jhantu Dey that BJP's win of 18 seats out of 42 Lok Sabha seats was because of the shift of a large portion of CPI-M and other Left parties' vote.
But can she make a difference now by her new tricks?
Observers say finally it is up to the people of Bengal. But Trinamool is crafting its electoral strategy with lot of thoughts. Mamata has pushed 'Bangla-r meye (Bengal's daughter)' card more aggressively.
It is a move to divide the Hindu vote. Strategy wise it makes sense as women form nearly 49 per cent of Bengal voters.
Therefore, her party has tried to highlight schemes like ‘Kanyashree’, under which a girl child gets Rs 25,000 once she is in Class 8, and also ‘Rupashree’ that would give Rs 25,000 to a girl’s family when she turns 18.
Trinamool has also announced cash relief for widows.
But women voters in Bengal know it pretty well that the BJP has also come out with their versions in the manifesto promising for example Rs 22,000, to be offered in four instalments at different points during schooling of a girl.
Under Balika Ayog, the saffron party says Rs 2 lakh grant would be granted for unmarried girls who have completed their higher secondary education up to Class 12.
"Look here, the issues of corruption, tola-baazi (forceful extortion) and minority appeasement matter to Bengali Hindu women voters too," says housewife Monti Das in Siliguri. Therefore, her argument - Mamata's neo-gestures of 'winning back Hindu support' may not work.
But BJP foot soldiers working in Muslim-pockets in Malda in north Bengal or Asansol areas in the southern part of the state, say Mamata regime's 'tactful strategy' to fool Hindus should not be lost.
Hence, they say Trinamool should be exposed before the people effectively.
Some police stations, they point out, had last year circulated posters requesting the Muslim community not to slaughter animals in the open. In South 24 Parganas district, civil administration issued posters with a message for Muslims urging them to show 'respect to the religious sentiments of Hindu brothers'. It said, animals should not be slaughtered in public and that they do not post any such video or images in social media. All these came too late.
There is large scale scepticism about Bengal police vis-a-vis delivering justice to Hindus.
In Durgapur, Sushanto Maity says, "We do not believe Mamata Banerjee and hence we cannot believe her police too. They look the other way when Muslims and Trinamool supporters are wrongdoers. Even Traffic police have been partial leaving out people driving without helmets if the wore a particular type of skull caps”.
This is precisely Mamata’s problems. There is immense trust deficit.
Journalists tracking Trinamool Congress say her party colleagues like Derek-O'-Brien and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar had even informally objected to utterance of 'Om Shanti' words in Parliament during obituary references to sitting or former members.
"There was a time when anything seemingly seen as part of Indian and Hindu culture, the Trinamool Congress would vehemently oppose to," says BJP leader Saumitra Khan, who was elected to Lok Sabha in 2014 on Trinamool ticket.
In September 2020, on Hindi Diwas, Mamata restructured her party’s defunct Hindi cell, re-introduced a Hindi academy and announced allowances for Hindu priests.
But Mamata’s leadership ‘defects’ and duplicity towards Hindu cause have been exposed so well. People know her pretty well. Mamata is herself responsible for most of what has gone wrong for her.
Ends 
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