Return of Mamata Banerjee the ‘street fighter’: Why TMC sees political advantage in ED face-off

Getting out of her car outside a posh high-rise in central Kolkata’s Loudon Street, about 4 km from the Lok Bhavan, on Thursday, Mamata Banerjee had one question for the police personnel nearby, ‘Pratik er bari ta kothay (Where is Pratik’s house)?”

The West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson arrived at the home of political consultancy firm I-PAC’s Director Pratik Jain, whose company has been advising her party since 2021, just as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) began its search. The CM soon came out of Jain’s apartment with a laptop and a green folder and rushed to I-PAC’s office in Sector 5 in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, about 12 km away. There, guarded by a group of TMC workers and the police, she entered the building and brought out files before sitting on a dharna for about four hours and launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The ED, she alleged, was acting at the BJP’s behest to steal confidential information and data about her party’s poll preparations.

A politician who made her name as a quintessential street fighter — the one who, as a Youth Congress worker, protested against Jayprakash Narayan, emerged as a giant-killer by defeating Left stalwart Somnath Chatterjee in the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, fought the Left for decades, and brought it down following protests she led in Singur and then in Nandigram — Banerjee’s swift response to take on the ED and the BJP was a reminder of what she is best known for. On Friday, Banerjee mobilised the frontline TMC leadership and held a padayatra in Kolkata, even as the party held demonstrations across the state, with her nephew and second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee addressing public meetings in Taherpur in Nadia district and the Matua headquarters of Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas district. The Matuas are an electorally crucial Dalit vote bank crucial to the BJP’s Bengal plans and have been uneasy in recent months about the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. In Delhi, TMC MPs were dragged while trying to march towards Amit Shah’s residence.

TMC insiders said Mamata had always benefitted from confrontational politics in the past and despite holding the CM post, she had not shied away from hitting the streets. They cited three instances: On February 3, 2019, months before the Lok Sabha polls, Mamata sat on a dharna in Kolkata’s Esplanade area after a CBI raid on then Kolkata Police Commissioner and current DGP Rajeev Kumar’s home in connection with its probe into the Saradha Ponzi scheme case.

The CM took on the CBI on February 23, 2021, months before the Assembly elections, when a CBI team landed at Abhishek Banerjee’s house to question him and his wife Rujira in connection with the coal smuggling probe.

On May 17, 2021, weeks after returning to power with a big mandate, Mamata rushed to the CBI office in Kolkata and sat there for nearly six hours as it grilled and then arrested TMC MLAs and ministers, including the late Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, and Sovon Chatterjee in connection with the Narada sting operation probe.

TMC leaders said Banerjee had made political gains from her confrontation with the Centre, as it allows her to challenge anti-incumbency by modulating her message to voters in the language of the Opposition and anti-establishment politics. This has also given the CM the opportunity, just months before the elections, to paper over the cracks in the TMC organisation caused by factional feuds and mobilise the entire rank-and-file by making them set aside their significant differences. For a ruling party that could potentially face questions about its management of the state’s economy and alleged scams in which TMC leaders have been under the scanner, this allows Mamata to shift the attention.

“For our party chief, this was a moment to show what she really is, a street fighter. Though Opposition parties may point fingers at her and call her act unconstitutional, she always scored politically through such brazen moves,” said a senior TMC leader close to the CM.

“First, her move established once more that she is brave enough to go to any length to stand by partymen and even the I-PAC, which played a key role in our 2021 win, at a time of distress,” explained another senior leader. “Second, by standing up to the ED, she highlighted that she is the only Opposition leader in the country who can take on the BJP head-on, fight toe to toe. Third, before the polls, she has a rallying point for her party cadre and leaders.”

TMC insiders also pointed to the important role I-PAC had come to play for the TMC since helping with its strategy and poll preparation for the 2021 elections. “It is likely that the I-PAC boss and his office hold some documents about the party’s preparation for the Assembly polls. There may be sensitive documents which should not fall into the hands of the ED or anyone else through them,” said a senior MLA and minister close to the CM.

However, whether Mamata’s no-holds-barred approach works remains to be seen as the Opposition accuses her of impropriety, misuse of power, and committing a crime.

“We condemn outright the entirely irresponsible conduct of Mamata ji. As a student of law, I would also like to say that this is also a crime. It is a penal offence,” senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in New Delhi.

“Everyone is aware that Bengal has become a hotspot for coal smuggling. There have been discussions around how many leaders from the ruling party are part of it … Why are you so anxious if an investigation related to the coal scam is taking place? We do not understand…there are suspicious circumstances surrounding this (incident) … if she has broken all the norms, it means there was something very sensitive there and needed to be taken away,” he said.

“Mamata Banerjee is misusing her power to suppress documents that would prove her corruption. But, this won’t succeed all the time,” said senior state BJP leader Rahul Sinha.

CPI(M) leader and former MP Sujan Chakraborty, whose party on Thursday called for Mamata’s arrest, said the TMC chief had “tarnished Bengal’s image”.

“She never rushed to the homes of Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Mallick when they were arrested. However, she rushed to Abhishek Banerjee, Rajeev Kumar, and Pratik Jain’s house when central agencies raided their homes. This indicates there is something very critical there in the IPAC office or Jain’s home that the CM did not want the investigative agency to get its hands on,” he said.