A little reversal: Where labharthis cite Didi, challenge is Modi – and anti-incumbency

Come to West Bengal to see how roles have been rejigged. Here, Mamata Banerjee, once the face of “poriborton”, is the long-playing and entrenched establishment. The ruler with a designated successor, she shares election posters with a fresh-faced nephew, or “bhaipo” as he is known here, Abhishek Banerjee. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, campaigning to retain his dominance elsewhere after two terms at the Centre, is casting himself in the role of challenger, who is trying to capture the space for change Mamata was once credited with.

If the BJP pitch in states like neighbouring Bihar is “there is no alternative (to Modi)”, here it is saying the alternative is Modi.

That the BJP drive needs to recast itself in West Bengal, is illustrated by the fact that “schemes” here mean Mamata, not Modi. “Lakshmir Bhandar”, a cash transfer to women is the undisputed centrepiece. Under this scheme, all women of age 25-60, if they apply, get Rs 1200 a month if they are SC/ST and Rs 1000 if they are from the General category.

TMC’s opponents also have to promise that they will not discontinue it. At the CPM office in Ranaghat, stacked with stained steel almirahs and bundles of election material, the pamphlet for the party’s candidate, Alakesh Das, starts like this: “Lokkhi Bhandar and all schemes will not be shut down. The funds for these schemes will be increased”. In village Fulia Belgharia in the same constituency, the BJP’s sitting MP, Jagannath Sarkar, tells The Indian Express: “This time ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is khullam khulla (in the open)…We will also give Lokkhi Bhandar, and we will give more money under it”.

But if schemes for women mean Mamata, in many places fear also carries the name of TMC. In chai shop addas in West Bengal, many more