New Delhi: When West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress members and supporters look back at their party chief Mamata Banerjee’s recent visit to New Delhi, they may find some satisfaction that even if not the war, “didi” (referred to Mamata Banerjee) did win a battle — of narratives.
Though the third largest Opposition bloc in Lok Sabha, the Trinamool Congress has wrested the lead from the Congress in its tirade against the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls.
It has 28 MPs, comprising 5.17 per cent of the total strength of 18th Lok Sabha, formed after the 2024 general elections, while Congress has 99 (18.27 per cent), followed by the Samajwadi Party (SP) at 37 (6.83).
While Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi may be credited with raising the first doubt over SIR before Bihar Assembly election last year, he chose to inform — not try to reform — alleged anomalies in the process.
Most in the Opposition INDIA bloc remained unconvinced or reluctant in joining voices, while the SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh hailed Mamata Banerjee’s efforts.
Reaching Delhi on February 1, the West Bengal Chief Minister took the lead in narratives on February 2, when she marched to the two state guest houses in the national capital in “home-wear” as she described it.
The mission was reprimandation of the Delhi Police to be present and for setting up of barricades at the two “Banga Bhawans” — one at Hailey Road, and a “new” one at Chanakyapuri.
Camera followed Mamata Banerjee through the day, and later to the Election Commission headquarters at Nirvachan Sadan.
Here, following an incomplete meeting — though known for unpredictable and disruptive politics — Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee obliged the waiting media corps with a strong address.
On Tuesday, she paraded family members reportedly suffering over SIR exigencies.
While on Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee chose to argue her own case against the Election Commission’s SIR exercise, surrounded by a battery of lawyers.
It was hailed by her party with “This move makes her the first sitting Chief Minister in India to appear as a ‘party in person’ to argue a case in the apex court”.
Commenting on the visit, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from West Bengal’s Balurghat and Union Minister of State, Sukanta Majumdar, termed it a “dramabaazi”, first in front of Banga Bhavan, then before the Election Commission headquarters, and the next day, Supreme Court.
For Mamata Banerjee, Wednesday’s arguing was not the first instance, she has done it a few times earlier for her party members — and not as petitioner, but donning lawyers’ garbs — according to some reports in West Bengal’s regional media.
Trinamool members said that Mamata Banerjee holds a law degree from Kolkata’s Jogesh Chandra Choudhury College of Law, and apparently had availed a security clearance and a gate pass to represent herself at the apex court.
According to the media reports, in 1993, she reportedly argued for the Youth Congress in a district court after a march to the State Secretariat building — with Mamata Banerjee, then the party organisation’s state leader — ending in a confrontation with the police, which resulted in the tragic shooting of 13 protesters.
The “Writers Building March” was a protest against the then Left Front government, demanding that photo voter identity cards be made mandatory in elections.
This incident is commemorated annually as Martyr’s Day even after Mamata Banerjee founded the Trinamool Congress.
The same year, she was also reported to have stood as a lawyer in the Bhikari Paswan disappearance case.
The issue in 1993 was taken up by human rights groups which, they claimed, was reported after the police detained, and allegedly tortured him.
In 1996, “didi” apparently donned a black coat for Trinamool Congress MLA Pankaj Banerjee at Alipore Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate court over a reported attack on Regent Park police station in Kolkata.
She also stood as a lawyer at Balurghat court in another case of police firing in which a student died, according to regional reports.
Mamata Banerjee petitioned the apex court, alleging “mass disenfranchisement, arbitrary and flawed exercise”, with procedural errors.
The case was heard by a three-judge bench led by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi.
(IANS)
