TT, Calcutta, July 30: The Trinamul Congress won 13 of the 17 zilla parishads and was in a position to play a critical role in two other districts in north Bengal as the chief minister had predicted yesterday.
With the mandate from rural Bengal in her favour, Mamata has started planning for the next two immediate targets — improved Trinamul performance in the Lok Sabha polls and Bengal’s industrialisation — that she had set for herself.
“Mamatadi said we had performed exceedingly well in the panchayat polls. She said we must now start preparing for the bigger battle,” said a Trinamul MP who attended a meeting of the party’s parliamentarians.
Mamata’s message suggested that having decimated the Opposition in the panchayat polls, she has now set her sights on the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for 2014.
Trinamul insiders said Mamata was keen on playing an important role in national politics and was well aware that adding to her existing tally of 19 MPs would give her leverage in Delhi.
“She told all the MPs to work intensively in their areas and spend the local area development funds judiciously and end the spending by November 30,” said an MP.
Trinamul sources said that the chief minister has set a target of 30 to 32 seats on its own, a jump from the existing 19, in the 2014 polls.
If forecasts are made on the basis of the panchayat poll figures, such a tally is not mathematically improbable. But rural and Lok Sabha polls are fought on entirely different planks and there is no guarantee, unless there is a wave, of identical results.
Sources in Trinamul said the chief minister was happy the party was able to retain its lead in the south Bengal districts and deal a heavy blow to the Congress in its traditional stronghold in north Bengal.
Although Trinamul has established its dominance in the rural polls, the Lok Sabha polls will be a different battle because of a number of reasons, including the deep involvement of the Election Commission of India.
“The commission will decide on the deployment of central forces and there will be election observers from outside the state,” an official said, referring to allegations of intimidation that ensured victories without contests in several panchayat seats.
State election commissioner Mira Pande, who had pursued the legal avenue to ensure deployment of central forces, said today: “The government’s co-operation…. I won’t say it was not there. There was co-operation, more or less. But it did not carry out a lot of the commission’s orders.”
The chief minister is also gearing up for her meeting with industrialists in Mumbai on August 1. Trinamul leaders are awaiting clues to whether the confidence provided by the election sweep will translate into a thrust on bringing investors to Bengal.
“She was under pressure for a number of reasons. Industrialisation was among the priority areas and now she could work towards that end,” said a Trinamul leader. He said a development plank would be an added advantage in the Lok Sabha elections.
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