Justice for the Kolkata trainee doctor means not only women's safety in workplaces, but it also covers a demand for an administration and police that is competent and not under the thumb of political patrons allegedly from the ruling Trinamool Congress.
In 2024, Mamata Banerjee won 29 Lok Sabha seats, snatching six back from the BJP and one from the Congress, improving on her 2019 haul of 22 seats.
Dealing with alienated voters can be tricky. To get them to show up at the polling booths, the parties need to up their game in mobilising the stay-at-homes through either persuasion or pressure.
As the leader of the Trinamool Congress and the iconic face of West Bengal's politics, Mamata Banerjee's pointed attack on Narendra Modi as the "bohiragoto" was designed to paint him as an encroacher.
Over time, Mamata Banerjee has repositioned herself within the alliance and by naming Mallikarjun Kharge, has become the second in command, by default.
By winning the overwhelming majority of the 3317 gram panchayats, 341 panchayat samitis and all the zilla parishads in all the 20 districts of the state, Mamata Banerjee is closer to fulfilling her vow to bleed the BJP to a point where it does not pose a challenge to the TMC's power and consequently its dominance over West Bengal.
The TMC is offering roses and water to opposition candidates in the Bengal panchayat polls. But Bengal's record of pre-poll violence has not changed. Instead, new objects, like cricket stumps, are being weaponised.
TMC's most urgent compulsion is to find ways to restore the confidence of the party's support base before the crucial overdue panchayat elections.
Mamata Banerjee has made a conditional offer to the Congress, that she will support the party's bid to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal.
Instead of a consolidation of the Opposition against the BJP, at least three factions have emerged. One headed by the Congress as alliance maker, if not alliance lynchpin, the others are permutations and combinations of smaller regional parties pivoting around different leaders.
Having pitched to lead the anti-BJP opposition, and keep the Congress at bay to prevent it from capturing the position of the principal challenger to Modi, retrieving her reputation with West Bengal voters is crucial for Mamata's national-level ambitions.
The jingle about Didi's comprehensive safety net for the vulnerable is a positive reinforcement for a party that is being brutally hammered under allegations of commission-taking and its ever-spreading ripples.
For TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee managing the problem that is Abhishek Banerjee, young, bursting with energy and ideas and a nephew is far easier than managing problems like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra is for Sonia Gandhi and the Congress.
