Suvendu Adhikari becoming the chief minister of West Bengal marks and ironic shift. And it is stark.
A 15-year long dispensation is no more. The entire political grammar that defined the state since Singur -Nandigram has collapsed.
An agitation that swept away Left Front and led to Mamata Banerjee replacing it created Adhikari who became one of her most influential Cabinet colleagues. Little did she know that he will be instrumental in ending her dominance.
Adhikari is not an outsider storming the gates of Bengal from Delhi. Having emerged from the inner organisation of Trinamool Congress, he knew it’s nuts and bolts.
These were the district network, methods of mobilisation and it’s emotional vocabulary. And of course, its dependence on local strongmen.
This makes BJP’s maiden electoral triumph a culmination of the dismantling of the Trinamool system from within. It is more than a national wave imposed on a resistant state.
Bengal political culture rested on a regional identity framework for years. It was confrontational and Banerjee had projected itself as a defender of Bengal’s autonomy against Delhi ‘s hegemony.
The new politics is now rooted in border security, demographic anxieties and national integration. West Bengal.may increasingly resemble neighbouring Assam’s political trajectory.
This is reinforced by BJP leadership’s choice of Adhikari as the chief minister. His political style underscores that thinking..
Here is a combative leader. His reputation rests on confrontation and direct street level mobilisation.
It is a manifestation of a belief that Bengal remains a battleground. It requires political hard power.
Campaigns thrive on angst and mobilisation. But administration rests on law and order, employment creation and economic delivery.
West Bengal’s finances remain fragile. Industrial revival has stalled for years
The task before Adhikari is transforming West Bengal and nurse it back to its earlier position of a leading state of the nation. Otherwise it would be another transfer of Bengal’s culture of confrontation from one party to another.
