TMC Makes Intimidation Its Strategy Ahead of Bengal Elections

With corruption and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) getting linked in the public mind after the mass-sacking of 26,000 teachers due to the recruitment scam linked to the party, Mamata Banerjee's party has quietly prepared the blueprint for a fightback since Assembly elections are just months away.

- Suprotim Mukherjee

It's a different matter that, officially, the party denies the charges as politically motivated.

But Trinamool leaders admit in private that a strategy has been communicated to the grassroots to turn the tables on the Opposition. As part of that strategy, the party faithful have been instructed to get into belligerent mode and cause disruption whenever Opposition leaders, particularly from the Bharatiya Janata Party, try to reach out to the public.

Bengal BJP president and junior Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar was the first to get a taste of this when "protesters" demanding unpaid wages for MGNREGA work confronted him while he was in Budge Budge's Haldarpara on Thursday to meet an injured party worker. The protesters heckled with "go back" slogans and black flags, besides calling him a "chor (thief)" and a "dangabaj (riot-monger)". The protesters also jammed the area with tableaus mounted on commercial vehicles popularly known as "chhota haathi" bearing banners emblazoned with the word "chor". The protesters jostled with Majumdar's security guards and threw slippers at him. The TMC claims that it was the cadre of BJP that caused the disruption, although video evidence seems to show otherwise.

The protesters demanded the immediate unblocking of Central dues to Bengal, especially under the 100day employment guarantee scheme, which he on several occasions proudly claimed credit for having halted.

Ultimately, Majumdar left the area with the assistance of the police and Central security forces.

Later, he told reporters: "Is this democracy? I am a Central Minister. My entire itinerary was mailed to the police in advance.