Tag: west bengal election 2021 dates

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former state minister-turned-BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. (File Photo)

Over the years, West Bengal and the country have learned not to underestimate Mamata Banerjee. A fiery leader in disarming sari and chappals, she took lathis and more to do the impossible and topple the Left Front in the state. A decade hence, Mamata finds herself in the same spot, and the country is again watching. Does the two-time Chief Minister still have the fight in her to stop another opponent, far mightier, over the course of an election spread out longer than a month, aiming for what no longer seems impossible?

If the Trinamool supremo retains power, she would join the handful of political leaders in the country to have defeated the Narendra Modi-led BJP, cementing her place as one of the tallest Opposition leaders at a time that the Congress is doddering. If the BJP wins, West Bengal would join the list of states the party sees as crucial to its ideological framework to go its way.

At a time when the Congress is locked in a bitter tussle with the DMK over seat-sharing in Tamil Nadu, there is tension in the party in Assam over allocation of seats to partner AIUDF.

There were tense scenes and slogan-shouting by a section of the party workers at the Congress office, in the presence of party chief Ripun Bora and Mahila Congress national president Sushmita Dev, in Guwahati on Saturday. Sources said Dev is upset over the allocation of some seats to the AIUDF in her stronghold of Barak Valley.

Of the 15 Assembly seats in Barak Valley, comprising the Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts, the Congress had won three last time while the AIUDF had won four. All the three seats in Hailakandi district were won by AIUDF and the party is claiming these as part of the seat-sharing deal.