Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday evening drove straight from the chaos of Esplanade to the quietude of Alipore, withdrawing from her five-day high-octane dharna, albeit “temporarily”, with a poised “courtesy call” to former governor C.V. Ananda Bose at the state government’s guesthouse Soujanya.
The chief minister also tore into the factors behind Bose’s sudden resignation as Bengal governor last week, calling it a “politically motivated... blatant injustice” before the Assembly elections.
The catalyst for the “for now” withdrawal of the dharna was the day’s developments at the Supreme Court hearing on the Bengal SIR, which the Trinamool Congress chairperson framed as a “victory for democracy” besides her own party.
To the uninitiated, the Supreme Court’s decision to streamline the appellate process for the special intensive revision (SIR) might look like an administrative act, but through Trinamool-tinted glasses, it appeared to be the defeat of the “compromised” poll panel’s “conspiracies”. The SC on Tuesday directed the formation of appellate tribunals to hear appeals against voter deletions.
“The door that was firmly shut has opened a little,” Mamata told a sea of supporters at Esplanade, her voice somewhat raspy from days and nights on the dharna dais.
The legal breather came as the apex court mandated setting up an appellate body and publishing the supplementary lists.
For Mamata, this wasn’t just a legal win but a lifeline for 50-plus lakh of the 60-odd lakh electors marked for adjudication by Team Gyanesh Kumar. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant in the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that over 10 lakh cases placed in the adjudication category had already been resolved by judicial officers.
But the evening scenes at Alipore were more dramatic.
In a twist that might baffle those familiar with Nabanna’s recent, tumultuous history of ugly skirmishes with Raj (now Lok) Bhavan, the chief minister appeared to be warming up to one of her fiercest institutional foes, now that he had vacated the constitutional post.
Mamata on Tuesday appeared to champion the cause of Bose, who she had repeatedly accused of overstepping or even of sexual misconduct towards a contractual employee when he was the governor.
“What has been done to him is wrong. It is a case of blatant injustice,” Mamata said, revising the stakes of Bose’s departure from an administrative exit to the BJP’s “anti-Bengal conspiracy”.
Having worked with Bose for years, Mamata pointedly noted his removal just before the elections as a calculated strike to endanger democracy in Bengal. In a characteristic display of the state’s “political etiquette”, she requested him to return to the state he now “understands so well”.
Bose had become a voter in Calcutta not long before his shock resignation.
“Dr. Bose is an erudite and distinguished individual, and during his tenure I had the opportunity to engage with him on matters concerning the welfare and progress of our state and its people. I have always valued these interactions,” wrote Mamata on X.
She told journalists that Bose had refused to stay on at the gubernatorial residence or even set foot there after his resignation, though his successor R.N. Ravi was yet to take oath.
Bose wanted to stay in a hotel, which she firmly refused and convinced him to stay at Soujanya, she said. She handed him a bouquet while both beamed for the cameras.
“I extend my warmest wishes to Dr. Bose for all his future endeavours. I am confident that with his wisdom and experience, he will continue to honour any responsibility he undertakes in the days to come,” she added on X.
Before the Alipore meet, at Esplanade, her nephew and heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee spearheaded the call to withdraw the dharna. The Trinamool national general secretary urged Mamata to preserve her health for the 80,000-odd booths awaiting
the party.
“Didi, the court has taken cognisance. This is your victory. We have to decimate them (on the ground) now,” he said.
Earlier in the day, in an act of creative defiance, Mamata took up her paintbrushes to produce an abstract work of art on a green canvas. Writing “SIR” and “VANISH” in bold strokes, she mocked chief election commissioner Kumar’s act of forced “disappearance” of legitimate voters.
While the dharna is over for now, the drafting of the next phase has begun. With the next Supreme Court hearing slated for March 25, Mamata reminded the crowd that the battle remains in the court and on the ground. “Even on the day before the election, any elector can approach them (the court).... The fight is to the finish, and we are here for it,” she said.
