Jaya Bachchan, a Bengali from Jabalpur, is a Rajya Sabha MP (File)
Kolkata:
Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal re-election bid will receive a high-profile shot in the arm on Monday, when veteran actor and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan campaigns for the Chief Minister’s Trinamool Congress during the ongoing Assembly election.
Listed as a ‘star campaigner’, Ms Bachchan’s presence reinforces the Trinamool’s popular slogan “Bangla nijer mayekay chaye“, or “Bengal wants only its own daughter”. And she is that – a Bengali from Jabalpur married to superstar Amitabh Bachchan; who is often referred to as ‘Banglar jamai‘, or the son-in-law of Bengal.
Ms Bachchan – who arrived in Kolkata late Sunday evening – will begin with a campaign for three-time Tollygunge MLA Aroop Biswas, who faces Union Minister Babul Supriyo in defence of his seat.
The rival contestant and the seat are both significant – Mr Supriyo is a popular singer and Tollygunge is Kolkata’s ‘cinema district’ – better known as Tollywood – that houses studios where films are shot.
Jaya Bachchan’s presence also underlines Ms Banerjee’s plan to take on a ruthless BJP poll machine – to stitch together a pan-India working alliance of non-BJP parties, for this and other elections.
An idea also floated – unsuccessfully, because the parties were unable to resolve differences – by Ms Banerjee in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, this time, it seems different.
Ms Bachchan is in Kolkata because last month Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party would campaign for the Trinamool. This was after he said the BJP is spreading “politics of hate (and) confusion and propaganda” in Bengal, and said his party “will not allow this conspiracy”.
Mamata Banerjee is fighting for a third term as Chief Minister of Bengal (File)
The day before Akhilesh Yadav’s comment, RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav – who came agonisingly close to beating the BJP in Bihar – said: “It is our duty to strengthen Mamata didi’s hands and fight the BJP.”
The Shiv Sena, a long-time ally of the BJP that split over government formation in Maharashtra, has also backed Ms Banerjee; senior leader Sanjay Raut described her as “the real Bengal tigress“.
Sharad Pawar’s NCP, a member of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, has also expressed support.
The big absentee, of course, is the Congress, which has allied with the Left and promised a three-corner fight in Bengal. In fact, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP from the state – Pradip Bhattacharya – even wrote to Mr Pawar and Tejashwi Yadav asking them to reconsider their support.
On Wednesday the Chief Minister underlined the need to pull together in a letter to 10 opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, whose Congress is firmly in the rival camp in Bengal.
Citing multiple examples – including the controversial new law that gives centre greater power over an elected Delhi government – the Chief Minister suggested non-BJP parties had to unite.
The letter – sent on the eve of polling in Nandigram, where she faced protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari – called for a “united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attacks on democracy and the constitution” and the “presenting a credible alternative to the people of India”.
Bengal’s eight-phase poll is a quarter done; the third phase will be held on Tuesday. The campaign, so far, has been exceptionally vitriolic, with corruption claims and personal attacks freely traded.
The BJP, which has never ruled Bengal, has spent enormous amounts of time and money to change that, while Ms Banerjee is battling to save her once-impregnable citadel.
After Tuesday’s polling, Bengal has four more voting days – April 10, 17, 22, 26 and 29 – before D-Day on May 2 – when the votes will be counted.