Kolkata Municipal Elections: Why the race is only for the second spot

A good way of getting a sense of which way the political wind is blowing in Kolkata is to scourge through CPI(M)'s mouthpiece Ganashakti (Mass Power). In every para (locality), there is usually one huge newsboard where comrades dedicatedly paste their mouthpiece every day. In a city fast changing in sight and sound, this is one thing you can associate from the 90's. A week before the elections, a cursory glance at Ganashakti amply demonstrated that the once mighty Left is firmly on the backfoot this time around. 

Almost every article talked about how 'violence' perpetrated by the TMC is throttling the voice of the masses. The subtext being that the ruling party is still very powerful and running roughshod over its political adversary. Ironically, this is the same accusation TMC used to hurl before coming to power. The more things change, the more they remain the same, perhaps. 

Yes, things have started to change on the ground, slowly but steadily. The roads are cleaner, parks decorated, projects are on track to clear waste - things that were a perpetual nuisance in the past. New malls and flyovers are growing in number and the whole city has a semblance of planning, with a blue and white coat uniformly donning the streets. Power cuts and waterlogging (and rainy day holidays!) are largely things of the past. Even Ganashakti grudgingly accepts the changes, but in the same breath still terms them as mere cosmetic manoeuvres, saying that nothing has changed on the ground. What the city craves though, are opportunities for industry and jobs, a promise the Mamata government has clearly fallen short of. But on April 18, the citizens will be voting on the parameters of civic facilities and TMC is unlikely to break a sweat in winning the polls hands down. 

Post the Lok Sabha elections, there was a perception that BJP can emerge as a major competitor to the ruling party. And what better place to start from than Kolkata, which has a large Hindi speaking population as well. But poor leadership and internal dissent has cost BJP the momentum it garnered during the Lok Sabha. Also, Didi has done her best to reach out to the Marwari and Gujarati communities, the traditional voting base of BJP. 

The Left is still smarting from its humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and its message looks jaded. A new batch of leaders is emerging, but it is still a work in progress. As of now it doesn't offer anything to entice voters to give them a new mandate. The Congress is conspicuous by its absence. Just before the elections, one of their senior councillors Mala Roy (a bitter Mamata critic) joined the TMC. Perhaps it was the greatest indictment of the miserable state of affairs in the Congress.

That leaves TMC, a party notorious for getting bad press only Smriti Irani can compare with. Many of their problems are self-inflicted and display an often brazen nature of political domination, inviting the ire of the civil society. The party though, is clearly in the pole position and is likely to win around 110 out of 144 wards. In essence, it is ruling the roost in absence of any worthy opponent. Not just in Kolkata, the TMC is expected to win a majority of the 91 other municipalities slated to go to vote in a week. Party chief Mamata Banerjee has clamped down on dissent with an iron fist. Nothing from the Saradha scam to the Burdwan blast seems to have any effect, probably because the electorate knows that the other parties are no better and hope that TMC will at least provide an element of stability. 

Talking about Kolkata mostly ends up in a rumination about its glorious past and hyperventilating about its non-existent future. Can the TMC board change that discourse? Can it get the city at par with other top metros of the country? Therein lies its greatest challenge. As for the results, most believe that it is a foregone conclusion. Even the Left looks all set to cling on to the second spot, while BJP's mission 2016 in Bengal seems to have crash landed even before taking off.