Nirmalya Mukherjee
The `bua-bhatija’ versus `baap-beta’ fight is hotting up before the 2021 Bengal polls.
At a rally in Namkhana in S 24 Parganas Union home minister Amit Shah attacked TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhisekh Banerjee for brining in woes to the state. Mamata replied back at a meeting in Pailan “do not cross the lakshman rekha. Your son (Jay Shah) will not be spared from investigation for abusing powers’’.
Interestingly, a few months ago, Mamata had called up Jay Shah to take care of his father Amit Shah’s health. She is believed to have said `please take care of your father’s health’. The home minister was in Bengal for a campaign. Prior to it he was affected by Sars-Cov-2 and was admitted to a hospital in Gurgaon. Shah was believed to have said jokingly “ didi had called my son and not me to take care of my health’’.
In 2017 Jay swung into controversy when it was publicly reported that his business revenues had surged by 16000 times during the first year of Narendra Modi’s government at Centre between 2014-15. Jay moved court and a gag order was placed by the Gujarat High Court barring all communications on the matter.
At 24, Abhisekh Banerjee entered politics in 2011 and became a sore in the eye of TMC leaders accompanying Mamata since the party’s formation in 1998. The first old guard to move out was Mukul Roy who left TMC in 2017 to join BJP. The second biggest catch for the party was Suvendu Adhikary who joined BJP in December 2020, accusing Abhisekh as `tolabaj bhaipo’ or `extortionist nephew’.
At present, TMC is facing a massive exodus and Abhisekh is considered the `devil of the piece’ along with the party’s professional political advisor Prashant Kishore, better known `PK’. Recently Dinesh Trivedi, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP has resigned pointing out that he would not like to remain in a party controlled by corporate advisors.
Until now no charge is proved or filed against Jay or Abhisekh although both have become issues in Bengal polls.
Neither TMC nor BJP have prepared manifestos in contigency to fight the polls. As of now the fight between the two parties are only at a personal level – the `bua-bhatija’ versus `baap-beta’ syndrome. It is expected that polls to the state will be held in seven to nine phases between April and May. Twelve companies of central force have been ordered to man the polls. The full bench of EC had declared that polls will be held within three months from the arrival of central forces. At the Namkhana rally Shah announced a few sops for state government employees, fishermen and para teachers.
Between 2015 and 2020 PK’s I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) agency had advised 5 political parties for state elections in Bihar (2015), UP (2017), Punjab (2017) Andhra Pradesh (2019) and Delhi (2020). Barring UP, I-PAC was successful in four states. Narendra Modi’s rise to power in 2014 was also advised by PK. Prior to Bihar elections in 2020, BJP had lost elections in 11 states. BJP retained power in Bihar with Nitish Kumar of JD-U as an NDA government.
A couple of years ago, Banerjee’s wife was allegedly dragged into controversy. Abhisekh is a two-time MP from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat. He is also a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.
The `bua-bhatija` syndrome had been renting the state’s political atmosphere since Prime Minister Narendra Modi had coined the slogan at a meeting in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. There he also dubbed Mamata as a `speed-breaker didi’ a `hurdle’ for every progress in the state. However, the second slogan is almost forgotten. As Abhisekh is now the party’s power centre, the bua-bhatija slogan has caught all attention. TMC insiders feel the exodus in the party is because of the bua-bhatija syndrome.
One-year younger to Abhisekh, Jay has caught the country’s attention when he was made the secretary of BCCI despite not having a cricketing background. Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has been made the BCCI president. Sourav met Amit Shah before attending the selection board meeting. There is speculation that Sourav is a prominent chief minister face for BJP in the state polls. However, sources close to party consider it as an impossibility and feels that some one from the ground level could be made a candidate for the CM’s post. BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said that the party has decided to fight the 2021 elections in Bengal `without a face’.
Disclaimer
This news article is prepared or accomplished by Nirmalya Mukherjee in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of kolkatatoday.com