The stunning victory in the 15th Lok Sabha elections by the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, was an indication that the tricolour party has arrived on the National scene as a serious contender in battle for power. While last time it was the Left that supported the UPA led Government before abandoning them mid way, after the recent polls it can be said that the red brigade has almost been reduced to a minority in the lower house.
While these were just the Parliamentary Elections and it was a poll that determines who rules on the National stage, however the results proved that the people of Bengal cast their vote based on State level issues rather than National level issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal and the UPA Government facing flak for inadequate measures after attacks like the Mumbai train blasts in 2006 and the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, followed yet again by the Guwahati blasts on the 1st of January 2009.
But when close to 70% of Bengal's population is rural and many illiterate, for most of them their main source of information on political parties are the posters they see around them and what they are told by their community or the political partymen. So for them issues like Singur, Nandigram and the police attrocities at Lalgarh come into focus combined with sloganeering by the Trinamool Congress- "Ma Maati Manush" or in other words Mother, Land and People of the soil . A simple effective message that reaches out to the people of all classes, especially in the aftermath of violence stemming from land acquisition in Nandigram and Singur. While the urban voters might have identified Mamata Banerjee as the one who drove Nano out of Singur and a name that became synonymous with anti-industrialisation, it could perhaps be seen as a move to vote for Trinamool Congress because of it's alliance with the Congress in Bengal. And many of them might have chosen to vote for a secular Congress rather than the BJP.
But at end of it the big Indian Voting Tamasha, these elections have proved that it is the people's verdict that decides who takes centrestage to wave the magic wand towards India's development and success in the next five years. As for Bengal, the Trinamool Congress's victory is an indication of what we can expect in the 2011 Assembly elections just as the 2008 Panchayat elections was an indication of the Trinamool Congress's inroads into rural hamlets, ruled for 32 years by the Marxists who came to power in 1977 using the same cards that are spelling victory for Mamata Banerjee. Not to forget that the Left has also lost on out on the muslim votebank after Talima Nasreen, Rizwanur Rahman and the Nandigram issues became Mamata's gain in the long run.
While these were just the Parliamentary Elections and it was a poll that determines who rules on the National stage, however the results proved that the people of Bengal cast their vote based on State level issues rather than National level issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal and the UPA Government facing flak for inadequate measures after attacks like the Mumbai train blasts in 2006 and the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, followed yet again by the Guwahati blasts on the 1st of January 2009.
But when close to 70% of Bengal's population is rural and many illiterate, for most of them their main source of information on political parties are the posters they see around them and what they are told by their community or the political partymen. So for them issues like Singur, Nandigram and the police attrocities at Lalgarh come into focus combined with sloganeering by the Trinamool Congress- "Ma Maati Manush" or in other words Mother, Land and People of the soil . A simple effective message that reaches out to the people of all classes, especially in the aftermath of violence stemming from land acquisition in Nandigram and Singur. While the urban voters might have identified Mamata Banerjee as the one who drove Nano out of Singur and a name that became synonymous with anti-industrialisation, it could perhaps be seen as a move to vote for Trinamool Congress because of it's alliance with the Congress in Bengal. And many of them might have chosen to vote for a secular Congress rather than the BJP.
But at end of it the big Indian Voting Tamasha, these elections have proved that it is the people's verdict that decides who takes centrestage to wave the magic wand towards India's development and success in the next five years. As for Bengal, the Trinamool Congress's victory is an indication of what we can expect in the 2011 Assembly elections just as the 2008 Panchayat elections was an indication of the Trinamool Congress's inroads into rural hamlets, ruled for 32 years by the Marxists who came to power in 1977 using the same cards that are spelling victory for Mamata Banerjee. Not to forget that the Left has also lost on out on the muslim votebank after Talima Nasreen, Rizwanur Rahman and the Nandigram issues became Mamata's gain in the long run.
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