Mamata Banerjee has proved that ‘impossible is nothing’. The Grand Didi of West Bengal has been dominating the news headlines since this morning by sweeping the Kolkatta Municipal Polls and giving the Left a run for its money in other civic bodies as well. The Railway Minister, who spends more time in Kolkata than Delhi, has kind of justified her absence from Rail Bhawan, by winning this election. Even though the media criticised her long absence from her Ministry and from cabinet meetings, Didi is having the last laugh after the poll results.
The news headlines since this morning have been describing the civic polls as a semi final with Mamata emerging a clear winner and the Left bastion being clearly in danger. There is no denying the fact that Mamata has worked tirelessly at the grassroot level to give the Left one its biggest electoral jolts in recent times. The focus of both the local and national headlines on Mamata’s victory has made her into a bigger star. The civic election results are also an indication of things to come. With Assembly elections due in the next couple of months, the Left will face its biggest political challenge of retaining power despite three decades of uninterrupted rule in West Bengal. The local Bengali news channels have already written off the Left saying that the trend of the civic polls will spill over to the Assembly elections. But it would perhaps be wrong at this stage to write Left’s political obituary. Even during the last Assembly elections, media had written off the Left and all poll surveys too indicated the same trend. But the Left bounced back with one of its best electoral results!
All one can say at this stage is that West Bengal is poised for one of the best electoral battles between the Left and the Trinamool Congress in the months to come. And no one can deny that Trinamool, led by its charismatic and mercurial leader, Mamata Banerjee, has performed against all odds.
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