Mamata Banerjee knows how to take the fight to the enemy. And turn it into a huge political advantage for herself. She has done it time and again in the past, most spectacularly against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Nandigram in 2007, an agitation that eventually led to the ouster of the Left Front government in West Bengal and her storming into power in 2011.
More recently, the Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo has fought back against the formidable election machinery of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a persuasive mix of nativistic rhetoric, sweeping welfare schemes, and her own undeniable charisma and connect with the masses. Despite widespread allegations of corruption and misrule, she won the state for a third time in 2021, her party garnering a massive 213 out of 294 Assembly seats and nearly 48 per cent of the vote share.
And now, with the Assembly elections slated to take place a few months down the line, Mamata, the battle-hardy high priestess of political strategy, has pulled off another dramatic coup.
On Wednesday she marched into the Supreme Court of India and personally argued her case challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, alleging that the exercise was being conducted hurriedly and unfairly before the upcoming elections, leading to the disenfranchisement of lakhs of voters.