CRACKS, CLASHES AHEAD OF BENGAL ELECTIONS

The West Bengal elections will be held in early March and April next year, and they promise to be the biggest battle yet between incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

- BY SWATI CHATURVEDI

Expect eye-popping sums of money to be spent on the campaign — and blood on the streets.

The Wagqf Board law is a precursor to the fight for Bengal, where Muslims make up nearly 30 per cent of the electorate. The doughty Banerjee has already declared that she won’t implement the Waqf law in the state. Protests over the law turned violent in Bengal, with three people killed and 150 arrested last Friday.

The BJP approached the Calcutta High Court, which called the situation “grave” and immediately ordered the deployment of central armed forces in the affected areas.

You would think that with the resurgent BJP ready to throw all its might at the big battle for Bengal, the TMC’s leaders and cadre would be prepared to take on the gargantuan BJP machine — but you would be wrong.

In an entirely unedifying episode, four TMC Members of Parliament (MPs) squabbled in public, called each other names that would put teenagers to shame, and, worse, unethically recorded colleagues and leaked clips of a delegation that had gone to the Election Commission (EC). The MPs embarrassed the TMC and overshadowed a very successful Parliamentary session the party had otherwise enjoyed.

‘Didi’ is furious