West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee speaks in the State Assembly in Kolkata on December 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Discontent and anger against the government do not necessarily result in the electorate voting against the ruling party. This has become quite evident over the past few years in West Bengal politics, the latest example being the recently concluded Assembly bypolls.
Despite the protests over the rape and murder of a doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, the ruling Trinamool Congress won bypolls in all six Assembly seats without much resistance from the Opposition parties.
The ruling party not only retained five seats it had won in 2021 but also wrested Madarihat in north Bengal, considered to be a stronghold of the BJP, a seat the State’s ruling party had never won in the past. On some seats such as Haroa in North 24 Parganas and Sitai in Cooch Behar, the margin of victory of the Trinamool Congress candidate was over 1.3 lakh votes.
For more than two months, Kolkata and its adjoining suburbs witnessed unprecedented protests with thousands of people on the streets demanding justice for the rape and murder of a doctor. The anger was directed at the State government for failing to provide security to a woman doctor at a government facility, the accused being a civic police volunteer, and the alleged attempts to hush up the crime by a section of police and hospital administration.
The protests brought the government to its knees when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was forced to transfer Kolkata Police Commissioner and officials of the State health department.
The question being discussed in political circles is how the Trinamool Congress managed to emerge unscathed from protests. More than the success of the Trinamool Congress, the bypolls reflect the failure of Opposition parties to capitalise on the anger and discontent among the people. While the citizen groups kept political parties away from the protests, the parties could not organise any meaningful movement, and their intervention fizzled out well before the protests on the streets died down.
For several years, despite the issues of law and orders and several scams, the vote share of Trinamool Congress has increased. The perception that the Trinamool Congress government will collapse under the weight of its scams and its own contradictions of factionalism and divide between the young leadership and old loyalists has not worked for the Opposition.
The Trinamool Congress has held the electorate together through cash incentive schemes and the dominance on booth-level politics. For the BJP, the prospects look bleak as its vote share has been on a decline after the 2021 Assembly polls. The BJP has lost all bypolls held since then, including the one held in July this year. In the Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamool Congress increased its tally to 29 seats, whereas the seats of the BJP dropped to 12. After the debacle in the recent polls, the State BJP leadership tried to hide behind the argument that bypolls usually belong to the ruling party and a 6-0 verdict in favour of the ruling party was a foregone conclusion.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress, which contested the elections separately, also failed to make any mark in the bypolls. For over a decade, both parties have appeared confused about defining their primary political opponent in the State — whether it is the BJP or the Trinamool Congress.
Credit must also be given to the Trinamool Congress leadership of Ms. Banerjee, who allowed the protests to run their usual course for almost 100 days. She held meetings with protesting doctors, and did not take any hasty actions, even after being snubbed on one occasion when protesters refused to meet her and left her waiting.
Though the results indicate the electoral supremacy of Trinamool Congress, to assume that the protests around the R.G. Kar incident did not serve any purpose would be incorrect. For decades, the State which has been starkly divided on political lines, has lacked any civil society movement. The protests and demonstrations over the gruesome crime have given people the courage to descend on the streets and raise their voices against the State and the ruling establishment. This very act and defiance may go a long way in shaping society and the politics of the State in the future.
shivsahay.s@thehindu.co.in
Published – December 05, 2024 02:18 am IST