Mamata Banerjee’s assumption that Bengali nationalism could block anti-incumbency and Hindutva may be optimistic
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal is a unique specimen in understanding anti-incumbency. Welfare schemes that usually make incumbents popular have added to the anti-incumbency woes of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the workers of her party made those the easy and only option for rent-seeking. ‘Cut money’, or the cut for TMC local leaders on welfare disbursement, is the most important reason for anti-incumbency in the State. The unaccountable nature of power at the panchayat level after the 2018 elections were rigged by the ruling party, made it into an apparatus of extraction rather than a dispenser of patronage. The balance between patronage and extraction, which sustains political parties, was lost. Second, Ms. Banerjee, sought to compensate for her past alliances with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), by an overuse of Muslim symbolism, w
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Agony of the bhadralok: Amidst Bengal’s pitched political battles, this group finds itself on the sidelines
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Agony of the bhadralok: Amidst Bengal’s pitched political battles, this group finds itself on the sidelinesBy Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr., TOI Contributor
Last Updated: Mar 10, 2021, 10:05 AM IST
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Synopsis
The agonising dilemma of the gentle bhadralok now is this: The need to support Mamata Banerjee and TMC because it’s clear as daylight that the Left Front doesn’t have the strength to keep the Hindutva raiders from the Hindi heartland at bay. There’s reason to believe that the bhadralok harbours conservative tendencies which may draw them to BJP’s toxic cultural politics.
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 7
Claiming Bengal was in the DNA of the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday vowed “ashol poriborton” (real change) in the state if the party
Suggestion boxes, digital raths to be used to collect people s recommendations: Nadda ANI | Updated: Feb 25, 2021 12:02 IST
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