Mamata: Beyond 2021
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In the West Bengal election of 2021, the longest state election in the history of India, Mamata Banerjee won the khela, and the BJP lost the plot. How did this happen?
The author, Jayanta Ghosal, travelled to all the districts of West Bengal and unearthed certain key factors that helped the Trinamool win the state. For instance, there was a massive gap in the BJP's understanding of Bengali identity, which Mamata was able to exploit. An 'overdose' of central intervention, ranging from paramilitary forces to intelligence agencies to target key TMC leaders, added to the BJP's disconnect with voters. Increasingly, the state felt the divide between New Delhi and Bengal grow.
The book details how Mamata was successfully able to portray herself as the 'daughter of Bengal' who worked tirelessly for the state's poor and disadvantaged. It also asks the question: with the state elections under her belt, what will be Mamata's path to the general elections of 2024? Does she consider herself a candidate for the prime minister's post?
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Jayanta Ghosal, born in 1962, has been a political journalist for the past four decades. He has worked for the Bengali newspapers Ananda Bazar Patrika and Bartaman, ABP News, India TV, and is now consulting editor, India Today group. Most of his life has been spent in newsrooms. A journalist, writer, teacher and speaker, he is a student of the history, politics, and culture of West Bengal and eastern India. He has authored several books in Bengali about the region and is also a biographer of West Bengal's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee.
ARUNAVA SINHA translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction, non-fiction and poetry from India and Bangladesh into English. More than eighty of his translations have been published so far across various countries, including India, UK, USA and Australia. He teaches translation and creative writing at Ashoka University in India, and is co-director, Ashoka Centre for Translation.
