Mamata's signature July 21 rally and her daunting task at the grassroots

Martyr's Day rally, which has been used by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to showcase the party's strength every year, will utilise virtual platforms to kick-start her 2021 election campaign due to COVID pandemic. The clean image of Mamata Banerjee was taking a severe beating as several party workers and leaders indulging in malpractices over cyclone relief distribution. In 2019 campaign, Mamata had seen addressing her supporters and workers in her inimitable style – “Banglar paap, BJP saaf”, this year all eyes will be on the screen to apprehend whether she will hold the same rhetoric for the 2021 Assembly elections or choose something else?, writes ETV Bharat News Coordinator Dipankar Bose.

Hyderabad: Last year BJP bashing was the mainstay and along with it was the issue of 'cut money'. This year, it seems the same blues have returned to haunt Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee ahead of her signature July 21 Sahid Divas (Martyr's Day) rally.

The first-ever digital version of the rally, courtesy the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing norms, is staring at a continuously growing presence of the BJP across West Bengal and the rampant corruption among the Trinamool rank and file over the distribution of relief funds and materials to families devastated by cyclone Amphan and battered by the Coronavirus lockdown.

In 2019, Mamata was facing public anger for a variety of reasons and had to call upon her party leaders to return commissions gathered illegally or 'cut money', to facilitate people's benefits from government schemes. The clean image of Mamata Banerjee was taking a severe beating. This year, Mamata will again have to field questions and severe criticism levelled against a section of her party workers and leaders indulging in malpractices over cyclone relief distribution.

But, 2019 was after Lok Sabha results and the TMC supremo was charting out her plans for party workers in the aftermath of a formidable result of the saffron brigade in West Bengal. BJP had won 18 Lok Sabha seats. This year's July 21 Martyr's Day rally will be the last such rally before the state goes to the crucial Assembly elections next year. Much is at stake this time.

Since July 21, 1993, the day several youth Congress workers were killed in police firing near Chowringhee in central Kolkata, Mamata has been holding this rally. Over the years the event has gained ample significance as Mamata has been charting out her plans and laying down her political roadmap using the opportunity. This year Trinamool workers will eagerly wait for their Didi to explain how to approach the clear and present danger ahead of them – BJP.

Last year's Lok Sabha elections had put up the first round of challenges for Mamata, who will be wanting to make a hat trick of winning the Assembly polls in 2021. Though Trinamool Congress suffered a major jolt in the Lok Sabha polls and was virtually wiped out of the entire North Bengal, Mamata did make a comeback in the Assembly by-polls later last year, winning all three seats. The next litmus test for the Trinamool Congress could have been the statewide civic polls, scheduled for earlier this year. That got postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The precursor to the Assembly polls of 2021, just didn't happen. And BJP is waiting with numbers from the Lok Sabha polls, ready to give Mamata a run for her money.

The issue of 'Hindu refugees' residing along the Indo-Bangladesh border and their direct impact on the poll outcome of 30 Assembly seats, is also a factor which neither the BJP, nor the TMC can ignore. The saffron brigade has already stoked the anger of the Matuas, who had mostly migrated to India since 1971 and have been demanding citizenship. It is now an open secret that BJP is heavily banking on around 2.5 crore voters of West Bengal who had over the period migrated from Bangladesh. After storming North Bengal, BJP is ready to pounce on Mamata's till now an impregnable fortress, South Bengal.

It is true that Mamata and her Trinamool Congress had been reaping some dividends of the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests in 2019, but the message for the Hindu refugees is simple - through CAA, BJP is paving way for their permanent and legalised residence in India and Trinamool is opposing the move. It has already paid off well for the saffron party in the last Lok Sabha polls and could again emerge as a game-changer in the 2021 Bengal polls.

The 2019 by-polls had seen Mamata addressing her supporters and workers in her inimitable style – “Banglar paap, BJP saaf” (Bengal's sin BJP, has been washed off). Can she hold the same rhetoric in the 2021 Assembly elections? Will she be in a position to tackle the swelling BJP and the Left-Congress combine (who have also been making significant inroads with their ground-level relief work after cyclone Amphan)? All eyes will be on the screens when Mamata appears in front of her supporters this July 21, virtually. No doubt, she faces a daunting task at the grassroots, the literal Trinamool.