Didi has a battle on her hands

KOLKATA: The unprecedented saffron surge in Bengal has set some tough targets for Mamata Banerjee’s party, which now needs to do a reality check and tweak its strategies. This is the first time Trinamool is faced with a serious political challenge after it defeated the Left and came to power in 2011. The Trinamool chief has called a review meeting to take stock.


The first major challenge for Mamata is to keep her flock together. Two former Trinamool members — Arjun Singh and Soumitra Khan — have been elected MPs, days after they abandoned the party and fought the Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket. Their success may prompt some of the MLAs from the 128 assembly segments that Trinamool lost to follow suit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hinted at the possibility while campaigning, saying 40 Trinamool MLAs were in touch with him.

Even if BJP doesn’t resort to poaching, which is what Trinamool had done to Congress in Bengal, Mamata has no option but to give due space to BJP and the opposition in state politics. She has to hold municipal elections, which the state government has kept on hold. On the governance front, Trinamool will come under pressure from the 18 BJP MPs to implement the Centre’s social security schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and pension for farmers, small traders and shopkeepers.