When Anubrata Mandal, the Trinamool Congress’ chief of Birbhum district, West Bengal, turned up at the party’s Brahmin Sammelan dressed in saffron, he had surprised everyone. For a party that has constantly demonised everything related to saffron, the congregation of over 2,000 priests made the Dak Bungalow Ground in Bolpur look a giant orange candy.
On Monday, 8 January, priests from across Birbhum and Burdwan were ferried in buses to Bolpur by the Trinamool cadre. ID cards with Banerjee and Mandal’s photos and a sign that read ‘pratinidhi’ (representative) were distributed to all the priests in their paras and villages. Entry was provided to only those who carried these cards.
The message, however, was clear from the word go. Whether good publicity or bad, Banerjee wanted Hindus to know that an event had been organised for them.
The priests were presented with a namaboli (a religious shawl) and a copy of the Gita as they entered, and then treated to a sumptuous shudh-shakahari meal once the event was over.
That, of course, was a false promise. But no one really raised the issue with Banerjee’s blue-eyed boy Mandal, or Keshto Da, as he’s popularly called in Birbhum. The rally was a show of strength for Mandal.
However, the very organisation of such a sammelan and how it panned out, revealed larger insecurities within the Trinamool.
Interestingly, the Chief Minister gave the event a miss and was seen in North Bengal for a government-organised festival. The sammelan was led by Mandal and two of her ministers – a strategic move knowing that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is not targetting the Hindus of Birbhum, but the district's 37 percent Muslim population. Therefore, Banerjee did not want to be seen in what was an out-and-out "Hindu" event, lest her hijab-wearing, namaz-reciting image – used for years by the party to win Muslim votes – gets tarnished.
It was clear that the event had her blessings, though. Posters across Bolpur had her face on them and the ‘priest leaders’ on the podium did not fail to eulogise her in their speeches.
Mandal was the last to take the stage.
Interestingly, when asked if it was right for a political party to be organising such an event, he told reporters that this was a “secular” function. “Being a purohit is a profession and we have invited professionals to share their grievances,” he said.
When The Quint asked him about the honorarium for Brahmins, as the state government provides for ulemas, he deflected the question, saying "it is for the government to decide."
The entire event, in fact, tried hard to capture Hindu sentiments by making evocative, cathartic statements. However, what exactly the government will do to satiate the demands of the priests was never brought up.
Local journalists, working in the grassroot areas of the district, observe that certain Muslim-populated areas like Mayureshwar and Parui have seen a rise in BJP presence. "The young generation Muslims are moving towards the BJP as they think that the Trinamool has become too dynastic and top-heavy. Mukul Roy's defection has also motivated many TMC cadres to move to the BJP," said Bholanath Chakraborty, a local journalist.
An implicit agenda of the sammelan was Mandal stamping his authority on Birbhum, especially since he is now being pitted against Mukul Roy, Banerjee’s former Man Friday, known for his grassroots mobilisation strategies. Roy recently defected to the BJP.
“Ask him how much money he’s made off the TMC? Ask him why he keeps calling me? He is a big zero. A faltu person,” he told The Quint in his usual devil-may-care attitude.
Keshto Da has always been controversy’s favourite child. He is known to publicly ask his cadre to “break the legs” of Opposition party members and resort to other such violent means. In the 2016 state elections, the Election Commission even initiated legal action against him for saying that polling agents of Opposition parties would “vanish” before the election.
However, he’s always been Banerjee’s blue-eyed boy given that he is a key figure in the 16 legislative seats of the Birbhum district. The Chief Minister went to the extent of calling him a “special child” after the 2016 episode.
The upcoming panchayat polls are his latest battle and Mandal made sure everyone knows that he has his game-face on.
"I'm going to organise a similar event for Muslims, Adivasis and my booth-level cadre," he told reporters, indicating that the BJP cannot take his fiefdom away from him. "We will win all 162 seats in the panchayat," he told The Quint.
The sammelan has exposed the Trinamool's worst insecurities. The BJP's sustained attack on their blatantly pro-Muslim policies has forced them to now try and woo Hindu voters. But in doing so, they have still not been able to shed their "appeaser" tag.
Repeated attempts at defaming Mukul Roy even when no one really brought him up, shows that in spite of their portrayed non-chalance, internally, the party considers him to be a threat. And finally, the sammelan was Mandal’s way of asserting that no matter what the reports say, he remains unchallenged by the BJP – an assertion, given the results of the party’s last electoral outing in the district, should not have to be made repeatedly.
When will this newly-formed cycle of communal politics in Bengal end? Well, with the BJP now organising its first minority meeting in the state of 11 January, it doesn't seem to be ending any time soon.
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