Can Mamata Banerjee protect her formidable female votebank from getting splintered by Hindutva?
BJP had grown its women voters substantially in 2019. But it now faces hurdles in expanding it even further. 3 hours ago Pallabi Ghosh, who along with her husband runs a general store-cum-tea stall in the district of Hooghly, is a strong supporter of Mamata Banerjee due to the state government’s women-centric schemes. | Shoaib Daniyal
“You can call me a fan of Didi,” smiled Lokkhi Banerjee, 40, of Bishnupur town. “I was a fan in my father’s house. And I remain so in my husband’s house.”
Banerjee underlines that last bit since the rest of her husband’s family, like much of the town’s middle class, now leans towards the Bharatiya Janata Party. But she and her younger sister-in-law, Dolon, are Trinamool holdouts in the otherwise saffron Banerjee household. “We are in a democracy, right? We each can vote the way we like.”