Challenges Ahead for Mamata

Congratulations poured in for All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee from all quarters and political leaders cutting across party lines, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi after her party’s landslide victory in the recently held assembly elections in West Bengal. Elections were held in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry too but West Bengal stole the limelight because of the spirited fight put up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to oust the Banerjee government. But it was not without controversy as many criticised the Election Commission of India’s decision to conduct elections in the state in eight phases amid the second wave of pandemic, followed by sporadic incidents of violence during the polling. And violence continued even after the elections. It is reported that at least a dozen people have been killed in post-poll violence in the state, drawing criticism from the same people who congratulated Banerjee and her party for the convincing victory a few days ago. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar took to Twitter to state that the prime minister of India had called him and expressed his serious anguish and concern at the alarmingly worrisome law and order situation in the state. Jitin Prasada, Congress in-charge of the state, said that “the post poll violence that has been unleashed by the TMC on the Congress workers is unacceptable” and that people of the state didn’t vote for lawlessness. CPI  general secretary Sitaram Yechury also condemned the violence and asked if the reports of gruesome violence in the state TMC’s ‘victory celebrations’.

Supporters of TMC have every reason to rejoice following the party’s victory; Banerjee too deserved all the praises for winning the elections, almost single-handedly, despite BJP’s aggressive campaign led by its leaders including Prime Minister, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh among others. But celebrating a victory with violence is condemnable and it should be stopped immediately. It is reported that Banerjee will be sworn in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the third term soon, despite conceding defeat to her protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram. As she occupies the top post again, she has two issues that need to be addressed immediately. First and foremost, she should ensure that the post-poll violence is stopped and law and order is maintained in the state. There is a need to send a strong message that being in the ruling party is not a licence to take law into one’s own hand, or the purported notion of some pseudo party workers that ‘the ruling government will protect them even if they resort to violence’ should be invalidated by punishing the defaulters irrespective of party affiliation. Secondly, appropriate stringent measures are needed to arrest the spread of the pandemic which was dwarfed by the assembly elections for months as politicians from all parties pushed Covid-appropriate behaviour to the backseat during the campaigns. As the political dust slowly begins to settle, Covid-19 cases have started surfacing with 17,501 new infections being reported on Tuesday alone, pushing the state’s active caseload to 1,19,961. Banerjee must stop violence as well as Covid-19. Failing to do so will mar even her swearing-in ceremony.