NEW DELHI :Fiery Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who just months ago spared no opportunity to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party and criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has recently changed her strategy against the BJP that has emerged as the principal opposition party in the state.
Banerjee, who had in the past blamed the BJP for every mishap that happened in her state or in the country, has been refraining from comments against the BJP for some time now and rather than attacking BJP leaders daily, she seems to be focusing on her administrative works.
Many political observers and commentators from Bengal have also said that there is a visible change in the attitude of the Chief Minister and that from an attacking spree, she has become a more poised and careful speaker.
A political observer from West Bengal said, “For instance, it was expected of the earlier avatar of Mamata Banerjee to go all out against the BJP when the NRC (National Register of Citizens) controversy was boiling in the state, but she did not do any such thing, rather, she only made statements of what her party and her government would be doing. This (NRC issue), in turn, backfired on the BJP and the BJP is going around controlling the damage they have done.”
“There definitely seems to be a careful moulding of her public statements and comments and we all know who is behind this. She has been taking professional advice and has been acting upon it. I think she has realised that by daily attacking the BJP and its leaders, till the stature of the Prime Minister, she was only giving fodder to the Opposition to attack her,” the political observer quoted above said.
The Mamata Banerjee government has also recently committed to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to speed up the process of land transfer and land purchase in the state, and to fast-track the process of fencing the Indian side of the border with Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh share 4,096 km of border of which 2,216 km is in Bengal and much of it till today remains unfenced.
The MHA had been writing to the Bengal government over the border fencing issue for the last six years. According to sources, the recent urgency shown by the Mamata Banerjee administration is to counter the “anti-national” narrative which the BJP has built around her. TMC sources also said that the Chief Minister’s change in her style of functioning and attitude is to ensure that the BJP is not given an issue “served on a platter” and that the BJP should rather be able to fend for issues to take on the Mamata Banerjee government.
A senior TMC leader told The Sunday Guardian: “The party has realised that we were giving the BJP issues on a platter to take on the TMC. For example the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chanting issue was unnecessarily raked up by Mamata didi and the BJP got a quick issue to corner the TMC immediately by connecting it to religion.” “Also, the Lok Sabha election results have shown us that constant attack on the BJP has done no good to the party and it has only damaged the party further,” the senior TMC leader said.