West Bengal elections: Didi at the gates

The Trinamool Congress is looking good to topple the CPM in West Bengal. But with no clear agenda yet and no experience of governance, Mamata Banerjee still has a challenge on her hands.

At seven in the evening, Suvendu Adhikari looks like he just got ready for the day. The 41-year-old Lok Sabha member from Tamluk sports a crew cut and a well-groomed appearance. Adhikari is just about to begin a little durbar at the Contai municipal office, about 150 km from Kolkata. But before that, he switches on the television to watch himself on a private channel viciously attacking the Communist Party of India (Marxist), commonly known as the CPM, which has ruled West Bengal for so long that its ways have seeped into the genetic code of the state.