The upcoming six-phase Assembly election in West Bengal is not going to be just a routine electoral contest between the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Trinamul Congress-Congress alliance: it will be a battle royale. This crucial election is likely to seal the fate of ruling CPI(M) and bring the 34-year long Left Front rule to an end.
The wind of change that had started sweeping the state ahead of the last Lok Sabha polls, has now turned into a storm. There is a clear groundswell of support for Mamata Banerjee who has now formally announced that she is ready to head the government if her party comes to power. There is no doublt that this mother of electoral battles will be fought between Mamata Banerjee and the formidable Left Front. In short, the coming Assembly polls will be a classic case of one woman versus an army.
For many years, Ms Banerjee has been on a solitarh mission: the removal of the well-entrenched CPI(M) from Bengal. After breaking away from the Congress, she floated her own political party on January 1 in 1998: Trinamul Congress. That year, the fledgling party entered into an alliance with the BJP and went on to win seven Lok Sabha seats. In 1999, her party improved its position and won eight seats and Ms Banerjee became railway minister in the NDA government. In 2001, she resigned from her important ministerial post and quit the NDA. She joined hands with the Congress to oust the CPI(M) from power.
In the run up to the 2001 Assembly election, Ms Banerjee caught the imagination of the people. “Ebar ( now ) or never,” was her slogan. She was so confident of victory that on the last day of election she told the media persons: “See you at the Writers' Buildings ( the state secretariat ).” Her hopes, however, were shattered: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee led the Left Front to a brilliant victory.