KOLKATA: The rust on the grandeur of the grand old party, the Congress, in West Bengal exposed chinks in its armour when it lost the Zila Parishads of last three stronghold districts to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) within three months from July.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee stole the Congress’s opportunity to build public opinion against demonetisation. Mamata realised that it was the correct opportunity to strike into the minds of the people affected by the move.
While the Congress couldn’t limp back to prominence in politically-dominant south West Bengal after former Congress CM Siddhartha Shankar Ray brutally suppressed a Naxal uprising in Calcutta during 1971-75, Congress bases in Malda, Murshidabad and Uttar Dinajpur districts were kept intact.
That was not because of the party but because Abdul Gani Khan Choudhury, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury and Priyaranjan Dasmunshi called the shots in the three strongholds. With the death of Abdul Ghani in 2006, a former rail minister in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet, his family could not secure Malda fort. In the Congress forts Malda and Murshidabad, the TMC entered like a creeper and erupted like a banyan tree.
In Uttar Dinajpur, the district’s MP Priyaranjan Dasmunshi bade an untimely farewell to politics after a massive stroke in 2008. His wife Deepa Dasmunshi was elected from Raiganj Lok Sabha seat in 2009, but was not adept with the growing spheres of influence of the TMC throughout the state.
All municipalities of the Uttar Dinajpur district were won over by TMC through defections in July. Malda came as an August gift for the TMC, and Murshidabad was won this September.
The Congress had sought an opportunity to lead the crusade against demonetisation., Mamata is leading from the front, with the Congress nowhere to be seen.
A lot of water has flowed down the Ganga since the Janata Dal’s demonetisation move in 1978 when Prime Minister Morarji Desai banned several currency notes but with prior information to the public. The move was aimed at the alleged secret bank accounts of politicians, including Indira Gandhi. The Congress, as the main Opposition, was in a bitter fight over the move. However, in 2016, its voice has become a squeak.