New Delhi/Kolkata:
Now that the BJP and the Trinamool Congress are all set for mother of all elections in West Bengal, it may be worthwhile to point out in certain details that both these parties have done business together.
In retrospect, it is worth mentioning that within a year since floating of Trinamool Congress, in 1998, it was the Lotus party that aided and encouraged Mamata Banerjee to emerge as a key regional leader and make it to union cabinet.
Trinamool vote share was 24.43 taking almost two-thirds of the Congress vote and Mamata's candidates snatched six from Congress kitty and one from Forward Bloc to make a seven ‘win’ out of 21 candidates it fielded.
As they put it - the maxim ‘Nothing is permanent except Change’; and this works well for the BJP and its chief rival in Bengal, the Trinamool Congress.
In 1998 parliamentary polls, BJP and Trinamool Congress had picked up eight seats with a combined vote share of 34.63 per cent. Tapan Sikdar had made it as a BJP nominee from Dum Dum humbling CPI-M veteran Nirmal Kanti Chatterjee by a convincing margin of 1.36 lakh votes.
As many as 13 BJP candidates lost but the saffron party's vote share made a quantum leap from 6.85 per cent to above 10 per cent.
Political observers say as the communists' ideology and perceived 'pro-Left liberal Bengali temperament' almost paled into insignificance in many areas.
In 1998, the Congress vote share had nosedived to 15.2 per cent leaving them only one seat from West Bengal for veteran ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury.
Forward Bloc lost the crucial Barasat seat – held by Chitta Basu since 1977 to Ranjit Panja, elder brother of Ajit Panja.
A former Union Minister Ajit Panja (under Rajiv Gandhi) returned safe from Calcutta North East – but on Trinamool ticket.
The alliance between Mamata Banerjee-led party and BJP continued in two subsequent elections in 1999 and 2004.
In 1999, the BJP won two and the Trinamool Congress vote share was 26.04 and it secured eight 8 seats.
The BJP vote share also increased marginally to 11.13 per cent.
Winning 10 seats was no small achievement for the Trinamool-BJP combine, but in 2004, the Left got back the rhythm and thus the friendship was changed.
Mamata could only ensure her victory from the state. That marked the beginning of Mamata Banerjee's drift towards minority appeasement politics.
He, however point out that prior to that in 2000, Trinamool won the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections. In the 2001 state assembly elections, Trinamool entered in a pact with Congress and dumped BJP in the state to win 60 seats in the state Assembly polls.
In 2019 during election season, this blogger had spoken to one Birhum-based social worker Tasleem Khan.
His observation on this paradox.
“I do not buy the line that Mamata Banerjee had singularly helped BJP made entry into Bengal politics in 1998. In fact in 1991 itself, long before Mamata came out of Congress, the BJP undercurrent was visible in Nadia, Murshidabad and West Dinajpur,” said Tasleem Khan.
Old timers say the fact of the matter is the BJP initially made their presence felt in 1991 in Murshibabad and West Dinajpur largely owing to its ability to woo the support of Bengali ‘refugee’ population.
In fact, in 1991, the BJP vote share had jumped from 1.67 per cent to 11.66 per cent and in many places in vulnerable north Bengal seats, the Lotus party came runners up to the CPI-M.
Notably from the electoral strategy, it was that year, the BJP had roped in two celebrities actor Victor Banerjee fielding and muscleman Manohor Aich fielding and making both to contest. Of course, both had lost the polls.
Those were the days when legendary Marxist Jyoti Basu's hold over the state prevailed and the CPI-M vote share was 35.99 per cent and the Left parties in total had won as many as 37 seats from West Bengal.
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