My Analysis of Mamata's win in Bengal

 Here is my analysis of Mamata Banerjee's record win in Bengal in the just concluded elections. The KHELA HABE (Game on) if finally over. BJP certainly made gain from 3 seats to 70 odd seats. But it was too much to expect for the party to defeat TMC in Bengal. Even without Covid or the controversial "Didi O Didi" slogan, BJP could have won another 20 odd seats at the maximum. There is no runner up prize in politics. It's always winner take all. The loser is destined to the opposition benches.

The main reason Bengalis are very proud of their language and culture. Unlike we Odias, they don't have an inferiority complex and detest unwelcome intrusion and alien (in this case North Indian onslaught (somehow similar to Tamils who also consider BJP as a North Indian Hindi imposing party). Odisha is probably the only place on earth where a person not speaking the local language can be in power for more than 20 years. Forget about being a Chief Minister, one cannot even win a Municipality election in Bengal if he doesn't speak Bengali

LANGUAGE - Unlike Odisha, outsiders coming and campaigning in Hindi is not appreciated in the Bengal heartland. This could have been better if a local BJP strong man (or woman) campaigned in Bengali. But the party had no such local leader of stature to match the street smart, experienced politician in Mamata Banerjee. Mithun Chakraborty was an useless import from Bollywood who looked totally lost during the campaign. Bengal is not Tamil Nadu. Celluloid effects are at best marginal.

CULTURE - Bengalis are worshipers of Maa Durga and Kali. Jai Sriram slogan don't raise heartbeats or goosebumps. It won't work there. Culturally the state is far away from the Cow belt of UP and Bihar. Communal polarization has very limited effect as the Bengali psyche isn't caste and communal oriented.

Remember, this was not a national election, rather assembly election where local issues matter a lot more. After all, all politics are local. Just because BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats in last election, it doesn't mean that they would win a proportionate number of seats in the Assembly election. It doesn't work that way. Remember, BJP won 8 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha last time, but won only 22 seats in Assembly. Ideally it should have won 8 × 7 = 56 seats if the Lok Sabha seats translated to Assembly seats being calculate that way. But it didn't happen.

It took more than two decades of street fighting for Mamata Banerjee to dislodge the well entrenched Communists from Bengal. BJP needs a similar street level fighter who can sleep inside thatched houses in 40 degree heat and take shower in tube well water in order to politically connect with the millieu - not some imports like Mithun Chakraborty who are low on energy and can't come out of the comfort of their AC Van. This will take some time, not going to happen overnight.