Mamata vs CBI: Master at dharna politics, Didi may give Modi a tough fight

West Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee addresses during TMC mega rally 'Brigade Samavesh', in Kolkata

A political slugfest emerged on Sunday night as the central government-controlled CBI landed in Kolkata to question the police commissioner in connection with the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams.

The move triggered a strong protest from West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, some of whose party members have been booked in the same case.

The CM went on a dharna. But driving Mamata Banerjee back on to the streets could spell trouble for the BJP’s prospects in the state.

The Bengal CM isn't afraid of street politics — that, in fact, is her home turf. Most would remember: What started as a dharna in Singur eventually ended the Left Front's 34-year-old rule in West Bengal.

Banerjee, called 'Didi' by her followers, is one of the leading faces in the so-called Mahagathbandhan, which is taking on the ruling BJP at the Centre. For her supporters, this means that the Centre's latest move is nothing but "an act of desperation and political vendetta".

With only three months to go for the crucial Lok Sabha polls, the BJP seems to have backed itself into a corner.

On the one hand, the BJP-led NDA is losing allies thick and fast. On the other, it is turning on the heat against opposition-ruled states, especially those led by ‘difficult’ chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. Both have begun a no-holds-barred campaign against the saffron party and its supremo, Narendra Modi.

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Didi's gung-ho politics

Growing up in Kolkata, one of my earliest political memories of Mamata Banerjee is an image of her being dragged out of Writers' Building. Then a youth Congress leader, Banerjee had barged into Writers’ on January 7, 1993 and sat in dharna in front of the chamber of then chief minister Jyoti Basu. She was demanding justice in an alleged rape case.

Back then, this was one of those rare public displays of dissent against the invincible CPM government. Despite repeated warnings, Banerjee refused to abandon her dharna and continued to sit outside the CM's office till the police caught her by her hair and dragged her out of the building. She was later arrested.

Cut to 17 years later: In a Shakespearean turn of events, the officer who had supervised that operation joined the Trinamool Congress and was fielded as one of Didi's candidates in Jadavpur constituency – where he fought against then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Then came August 24, 2008 — the day often marked as the beginning of the end for the CPM in Bengal. Banerjee began an indefinite dharna against then CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led government’s move to hand over 1,000 acres of land to Tata Motors for a Nano manufacturing plant.

That decision cost the Left Front dearly and Banerjee, almost single-handedly, defeated a seemingly invincible Left Front government.

Banerjee’s history with protests and dharnas goes beyond this.

In 1991, Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development in the PV Narasimha Rao government. As the sports minister, she had announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against the government's indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country. She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993.

In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPM in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress".

In 1997, Banerjee left the Congress in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). It quickly became the primary opposition party in the state.

On December 11, 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women's Reservation Bill.

Fighter first, leader later

Banerjee is seen as someone who never backs down from a fight. If anything, she has mastered the art of using agitation to great effect.

With the saffron party keen to make inroads in West Bengal, Didi will try hard to make it seen as vendetta, that the BJP was resorting to all means to clip the wings of the opposition.

In the current Modi vs Mamata episode, the BJP should realise that Banerjee is playing on her home turf — this is the kind of gung-ho politics that has honed her skills as a politician.

In fact, this was the reason there were questions over her ability to govern as chief minister when her party came to power in 2011. Would Mamata Banerjee be able to make the transition from being a fierce fighter to an able administrator? The TMC leader has since led her party to two consecutive victories and is the first woman CM of West Bengal.

However, she is still a fighter first. In her own words at a press conference on Sunday night, "Ami raasta theke uthe eshechi etodur. Ami lorai korte jani — nijer jonno, loker jonno, adhikaar-er jonno. (I have risen from the streets to where I stand today. I know how to fight for myself, my people and my rights)."

The BJP has looked to up the ante in the state to exploiting faultlines along religion and caste ahead of the 2019 elections. It could put Bengal through a wringer. But in a communally sensitive state with a violent political culture, all eyes are now on Didi to see how she leads, and fights, from the front.