The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the BJP battle in the state aided by his number two Home Minister Amit Shah while the opponent is Trinamool Congress led by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee whose party had no existence in 1987 though she was a Lok Sabha member of the Congress Party then. Similarly, the BJP played an insignificant role in 1987 elections.

This change in political narrative in 34 years after 1987 poll tells candidly the sweeping transformation of the Bengali psyche and understanding in the last four decades. But there is a recurrent theme-the party of the centre has to fight against the incumbent state government of Bengal whichever party it is, in dispelling allegations about discrimination against the centre. In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi targeted the CPI(M) led government in his election speeches and focused on the absence of industries in Bengal, especially the flight of capital, whereas, the Left led by CM Jyoti Basu combated that by campaigning that the Bengal has always been the victim of the centre led by the Congress.

It was a straight fight with no noticeable presence of BJP among the contestants. Rajiv was made to understand that there was anti incumbency after ten years of Left Front rule and he made that the focus. His campaign went well in the first phase but in the later part of the campaign, he lost his plot after commenting that Calcutta is a dying city. This caused a havoc among the Bengali voters. Those floating voter who shifted from the left also came back to its fold and the Left Front repeated its performance by securing about 235 seats out of 294, the Congress getting only 40.

In the current 2021 assembly poll, the BJP has mobilised all its weapons for what their senior leaders term as Mahabharata war which lasted 18 days as per the epic. This Bengal Mahabharata battle is lasting 34 days and in the first half of four phases, the chief of the BJP army Narendra Modi has exhausted all his arsenals. Both the PM and his deputy are only repeating and just like the Congress PM made a big blunder in the second half of 1987 assembly poll campaign, PM and Amit Shah repeated the same by going all out to support the CISF firing on April 10 killing four persons.

The initial advantage received by the BJP due to ten years of Mamata rule leading to some form of anti incumbency aided by the allegations of corruption, has been neutralised to a great extent as the districts of the North Bengal are seething with rage at the unprovoked firing of the CISF, the symbol of central forces and unambiguous support to it by the PM and the other BJP leaders.

Nearly half of the 294 constituencies have completed the polling and the other half where Trinamool is not comfortably placed against the BJP, is to witness a last minute change of the anti incumbent mood in favour of Mamata. Modi has solely concentrated his attack on Mamata and this has reached such unsavioury dimensions that the entire tenor of then PM’s speeches, are being taken as showing disrespect to a woman leader who represents in her own way the aspirations of women of underprivileged families of Bengal. This has led to an unprecedented consolidation of women votes in favour of Trinamool candidates, irrespective of the status of the candidates.

The battle is between Modi and Mamata and the prime purpose of the eight phase of polling in Bengal masterminded by the ruling party was to ensure that Trinamool and Mamata get exhausted of both campaign fatigue and resources during this long campaign period. Further, continuous propaganda made by the PM that Mamata has lost Nandigram, impacts the overall political mood demoralising the TMC workers. This calculation of BJP high command has not happened and on the contrary, the April 10 incident has generated a new mood among the opponents of the BJP.A good section of the Left in the remaining four phases are coming to vote for the non-BJP candidate including Trinamool if that helps in defeating BJP.

BJP has entered the second half of the campaign with its agenda tattered. Didi O Didi by Narendra Modi will only invite derision in the coming campaign meetings. PM has to invent new slogans and innuendos. Amit Shah is failing to make no new point excepting repeating that Mamata is responsible for CISF firing. May 2 results in Bengal will show whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi is Arjun or Duryodhan. (IPA Service)