WINNING THE BATTLE FOR BENGAL

Count only RG Kar and Sandeshkhali, and you would think 2024 was Mamata Banerjee's annus horribilis. And then you count the seats

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

Mamata Banerjee wrote a memoir, titled My Unforgettable Memories, back in 2012. Still in her first year at Writers' Building, after a landmark agitation in Singur dislodged the long-incumbent and by then recumbent Left, it was meant as a mid-journey logbook. Jottings at the end of one phase of her 'ragsto-riches' life, it only marked the onset of another. Since then, she has been writing the subsequent chapters on the slate of Bengal's public life. Through exhausting electoral cycles, she has seen it all cultic euphoria, high and low tides, survival anxiety. Yet, if an updated edition ever comes out, 2024 will contribute some unforgettable memories-many of the sort she'd like to forget. One of them even threatened to become her own Singur moment. As 2025 dawns, though, West Bengal will find her still very much in control, as she mostly has been through nearly 14 years as chief minister. There are also moments she will cherish, not least the way her Troy held on against a mighty electoral siege that lasted all through a heated summer.