Lok Sabha elections: Delhi flavour in Didi’s campaign

Kolkata: If this election in Bengal is about the rise of BJP in a state that was till 2011 a Left fortress, it is also about a meaty role chief minister Mamata Banerjee can play at the Centre after May 23, the day poll results are announced.


For the first time, Banerjee’s poll campaign in Bengal is geared towards her party playing a key role in government formation in Delhi. Hoping to finish as the third largest party — Bengal has 42 parliamentary seats — after BJP and Congress, the two-term CM’s pitch is, “Didi is Delhi-bound”.

Hoardings across the city declare: ‘India Now Needs a People’s Government’, ‘Desher Karmakhetrey Prayojan Didi’r Moto Ekjan (the country needs a leader like Didi)’, ‘Desher Darkar, Janaganer Sarkar (the country needs a
government of the people)’.

All these hoardings at vantage points across the city have one of these lines running along with a photo of Banerjee on the side.

One of TMC’s hit campaign numbers doing the rounds on social media has young rappers singing “Dilli jabey hawai choti (rubber slippers will go to Delhi)”.

Banerjee has made the plain, white cotton sari and rubber slippers — or ‘hawai choti’ as it is called in Bengali —a trademark of hers, representing the downtrodden and the toiling masses that “Didi”identifies with.

Her party leaders don’t deny the Delhi slant. In fact, they add that she has been saying it at public rallies that these elections are for forming a government at the Centre, to take charge in New Delhi. Banerjee is also making it a point to say a few lines in Hindi during her public rallies across the state, to address the national audience and also to ensure that the Hindi-speaking residents of the state identify with her.

The TMC chief has also instructed party spokespersons to hold regular press conferences in Delhi and address them in Hindi to keep the focus on national issues while she is busy fighting her battle in the state against an aggressive BJP trying hard to score in a field that has so far remained out of bounds for the

saffron

party.

Asked about Banerjee’s Dilli chalo or Delhi-bound campaign, TMC MP and party spokesperson Derek O’Brien said, “It’s a two-hour flight from Kolkata to Delhi. And, with a tailwind, sometimes it takes just one
hour and 45 minutes.”