We will remember this Bengal election :2021

What an election!! When I left Kolkata to be with my son in Dubai, it was September ’20. Bengal elections were clear 8 months away, but we could feel the buzz in the air. There was a clear indication that a storm will happen and Bengal maybe swept away. In the subsequent months, I watched with great interest how things started to unfurl. Many TMC leaders leaving the party and joining another, the organisation machinery of the National Party coming into play. Slowly as the election commission came into play, how the entire administrative control was taken over by the Government in Delhi.
The Police Commissioner was changed; election rules applied one sided, brutal exercise of power was demonstrated. Then the Tsunami happened. The Delhi Team, comprising of the 3 main stalwarts of the ruling party, including the all powerful, unbeatable, high quality orator, the Pradhan Sevak and the Nation’s key political Leadership landed in Bengal, day-in and day-out and unleashed a relentless campaign on the soil of Bengal. They faced a local woman. A grassroot leader, a street fighter, who knew the pulse of the mass, single handedly with limited resources, tried to counter the onslaught. Emotions ran high and it works in Bengal, always. It was emotions vs brutal force. At the end of it, the emotions prevailed and won the battle as a landslide victory for TMC. It was a huge tribute to the relentless pursuit of focused effort to protect one self, from an onslaught never seen before in this state.
The future is unknown, but it will suffice to say that Bengal won. They wanted to defend what they are and did not go for a different kind of aggressive system against their own cultural ethos. They felt uncomfortable. This is the first round. Delhi similarly defended itself twice in the past. Are we seeing a change in the mood of the public, if they see a reliable local leadership, whose feet is firmly in the ground? Maybe!
We still have 3 years to 2024.