In fact, Mamata Didi made good use of Cyclone Fani to notch up a couple of electoral points against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It sticks in Modi’s gullet, Mamata’s refusal to accept central relief for Fani victims. A Gujarati would never refuse economic relief. Well, like the popular anchor says, the Bengali is not a Gujarati and Modi should not have made an issue of it.

But Mamata is cross with the Election Commission. How dare it curtail election campaigning in West Bengal and that only after Modi got to complete his speech? Are there double standards? BJP President Amit Shah’s roadshow was attacked and he blamed the Election Commission for going lax on the Trinamool. The next thing you know, whatever remained of the Bengal campaign was cut short! Naturally, it will raise more than eyebrows because allegations of violence have been levelled against Amit Shah and the BJP, too.

The EC cannot penalize the “the constituencies that go to poll on May 19” just because political parties in the fray are inciting violence. This is the first time in India’s electoral history that such action has been taken and it will set a precedent. Mamata Banerjee and Narendra Modi have made it acutely and unabashedly personal this time around and the name calling has descended to the bottom of the dank waters of the Hooghly.

Mamata has promised to teach Modi a lesson he’ll not forget and Modi has in turn sworn that Mamata’s “corrupt” nephew will be behind bars no sooner does he (Modi) return to power. It was an ugly spat getting uglier by the minute. Mamata talks of Modi as if he’s a euphemism and not the real dude.

The Democrats refer to Donald Trump as “that illegitimate President”. Nobody in India has ever called Modi an “illegitimate Prime Minister” but Mamata very nearly came to label him one after the Election Commission’s abrupt and seemingly partial action to curtail the Bengal election campaign. But for Modi, too, Mamata is a euphemism better to be cast aside in the real world.

Both Mamata and Modi are holding forth threats to each other come May 23 when both claim they will emerge winner. Mamata’s Trinamool will still get the most number of Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal but whether her dream to see the back of Modi from Delhi hinges on how well Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav do in Uttar Pradesh, and the Congress manages to do in states such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

A Third Front is also in high spirits, hoping to edge in sideways with Telangana Chief Minister keen to become Deputy Prime Minister to Rahul Gandhi’s Prime Minister! But what can be gathered from Modi’s utterances at his fag-end rallies is that he appears to have got hold of exit poll results and they point to a return to power of the ‘Chaiwala/Chowkidar’.

The long gestation period of the elections ensured that vested parties got to commission and conduct exit polls at leisure and with all the resources available, all-expenses paid. Select media have made tonnes of money these elections and those aligned with the BJP are swimming in moolah. For the exit poll data to change hands thereafter was but least of the bother. Modi and media friendly to him seem to be too sure of his return to power.

If that is so, then only if half or more of the respondents had lied will Modi bite the dust. That is a possibility that cannot be ruled out. People do lie when it comes to the ‘vote’ and that for various reasons including a certain ire at being asked the question ‘who did you vote for?’ The vote is a very personal decision and choice and many people do not like to tell the world who they voted for. Like said it’s not a fantasy world. (IPA Service)