Why Arrogance Doesn’t Pay: Lessons For Mamata From Across India

Huge election wins have often sowed the seeds of subsequent defeats.

The beginning of Mamata Banerjee’s second term as chief minister of West Bengal hasn’t begun well, at least compared to last time. Back in 2011, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the outgoing CPI(M) chief minister, along with other prominent members of Bengal’s Opposition attended Didi’s swearing-in ceremony. She was riding high on a mandate which wanted poriborton, and her rivals were gracious in defeat as she was (comparatively) in victory.

Five years later, things have changed more than a bit. Despite the Trinamool Congress landslide, the Opposition in the state – the Congress, Left and BJP – boycotted the swearing-in ceremony. The growing violence and intimidation by TMC workers is the reason the Opposition is already up in arms.

The TMC has won an impressive mandate and while their jubilation is understandable, the arrogance that seems to be following in the wake of their victory does not augur well. Both within West Bengal and the rest of India, a show of confidence by the electorate has been misinterpreted by the winning party and led to their downfall sooner than expected.

1. West Bengal 2006: For CPI(M), the Pride Before the Fall

For the longest running democratically elected Communist government in the world, its last electoral victory was one of its greatest. Just as with Mamata Banerjee and the TMC in 2016, the Left Front was accused of electoral violence and intimidation. The election was carried out over 5 phases amid heavy security.

The CPI(M)-led alliance won 233 out of 294 seats, and it was as though all the criticism against them held no water. The election results were declared on 11 May 2006 and a day later, CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced the Tata Nano project in Singur. The issue of land acquisition and industry would plague the government for the next five years. Five years later, Mamata finally came to power in Bengal. Even those who supported the CPI(M)‘s push for industry agreed that the announcement should have been made after a little more thought and groundwork. In some ways, the euphoria of an election win sowed the seeds for an electoral defeat.

2. When Jayalalithaa Attacked Karunanidhi

In 2001, Jayalalithaa could not contest the assembly elections because of her conviction in the disproportionate assets case. Her party, the AIADMK, won the election and Amma wasn’t kind to her opponents. On 30 June 2001, barely 40 days after her party won the Tamil Nadu Assembly election, police barged into former CM and DMK chief K Karunanidhi’s home and manhandled the then 78-year-old while arresting him. Union Ministers Murasoli Maran and TR Baalu were also arrested over corruption charges relating to the construction of flyovers in Chennai.

The visuals of the most senior politician in Tamil Nadu being manhandled made national headlines. To the public, an attack on a political opponent so soon after an election win was a blatant form of political vendetta. Needless to say, five years later Karunanidhi was back in power.

3. ‘IT First’ CM Chandrababu Naidu Voted Out by Drought

N Chandrababu Naidu was quite the political star. At 28, he became the youngest legislator and minister in Andhra Pradesh and from 1995 he was the chief minister of the state. He is credited with promoting information technology (IT) in the state and making Hyderabad one of the leading IT hubs in the country.

In 2004, Chandrababu was voted out of power. The Telegu Desam Party (TDP) was widely perceived as anti-poor, especially when the drought and subsequent farmer suicides in the state were juxtaposed with the India Shining and Swarna Andhra Pradesh peg on which the party ran. It took ten years out of power for the one-time political prodigy to regain the CM’s chair.

4. At the Centre, NDA’s India Shining and the UPA-II Decline

There are lessons for Mamata Banerjee from the central government as well. The Vajpayee-led NDA government’s loss in the 2004 general elections came as a surprise to many observers. A period of economic growth, a marked increase in infrastructure like roads and a popular PM made many think that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in for a second term. Those left behind, however, the ‘aam aadmi’, became the focus of the Congress’ campaign. For the first time since the mid-90s, India had a Congress-led government at the centre.

In 2009, there was more good news for India’s oldest political party. Even after a split with the Left parties over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Congress managed to increase its tally in 2009 on the basis of economic growth and policies like the NREGA. In its second term though, the Congress was riddled with corruption. Neither a global economic slowdown help matters, nor flippant statements made by its leaders. During the 2014, it was veteran Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar who arrogantly said that a ‘chaiwala’ could never be PM. Just watch the last 20 seconds of the video below.

Narendra Modi and the BJP were able to use the statement and chaiwala trope to great success, riding to power on an unprecedented majority.

Mamata Banerjee has indeed won a great electoral battle. But attacking Opposition party members reeks of arrogance and pettiness that voters have punished in the past, even in her own state. Governments, after all, have toppled and built over a lot less.