Will Mamata Banerjee's Formula To Defeat Modi In 2018 Work?

The eternally combative West Bengal chief minister has a plan to take the battle to the BJP and its mascot Narendra Modi in 2019

- Raj Chengappa With Romita Datta In Kolkata

Her office on the 14th floor of Nabanna, the headquarters of the West Bengal government, commands a magnificent view of the state capital. As rain drops form changing patterns on her window pane, Mamata Banerjee remarks that she would have liked to paint the scene, but complains that in the age of smartphones she gets so many messages that “you have to work every second to reply to them” and cannot indulge in “time-pass”. Just then the phone on her desk rings. Taking the call, she scolds an official at the other end of the line for not briefing her properly on an important issue.

These days, the West Bengal chief minister is not just in full command of her state but also very much in demand across the country. As the 2019 general election looms near, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its strongman Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly appear vulnerable following a string of byelection defeats and some close shaves in the party’s bastions. The Opposition parties sense that if they can find a way of combining their vote banks, they could dash the BJP’s hopes of a second consecutive term at the Centre.

By building a reputation of being a giant killer after ending 34 years of CPI(M) rule in the state in 2011, by ensuring that her party, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), won 34 of the 42 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and by winning a second term as chief minister with a landslide mandate in the 2016 assembly elections, Mamata has established herself as a national leader in her own right. With her vast experience in politics and governance—she is a seven-time member of Parliament with stints as a Union minister in three central governments, including the NDA and UPA—and now offering a gritty resistance to the BJP juggernaut, Mamata has emerged as the prime challenger to Modi’s might and ambition of being re-elected in 2019.