Her gaffes quite often turn into memes. Her detractors refuse to buy too much into her vociferous claims, but hold on!
If you are of the view that Mamata Banerjee is bereft of sagacity and intelligence, perhaps it’s time to retract.
Slow and steady wins the race, and the West Bengal Chief Minister is quite adept at that.
The elevation of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as the Leader of the TMC in Lok Sabha, ousting an ageing Sudip Bandopadhay, is a step ahead in propelling Abhishek as the heir to the throne.
Wasn’t that a masterstroke?
The senior vs youth debate that has been lapped up by her opponents, castigating her over filial bias has been pelted out of the ground.
Take a bow, Didi, you waited for the opportune time and you simply nailed it.
Guess how – a virtual meeting with her Members of Parliament was a platform used by Mamata to stamp her authority on the party, dismantling even an iota of dissent.
If Bandopadhyay’s age leading to his sporadic presence on the floor of the House was encashed to promote Abhishek, she minced no words reprimanding her senior lawmaker, Kalyan Banerjee, by ‘coaxing’ him to relinquish his responsibilities as the Chief Whip.
In Banerjee’s case, his murky war of words with his ebullient and outspoken colleague Mahua Moitra was grievous enough, leaving the former with no other option than putting in his papers.
“Didi complained of a lack of coordination, hence I had to take the responsibility and quit,” an exasperated and peeved Banerjee told a TV channel.
Banerjee was not asked to resign though. But during the meet, he was at the receiving end of his boss’s ire.
In fact, the highly revered lawyer has put his party in a pique of late with his diatribes, not even sparing his own party leaders.
Internal resentments over Mamata’s silence were mounting, but Didi was patiently awaiting the appropriate moment to crack the whip.
With the state assembly elections scheduled next year, intra-party squabbles can only queer her pitch with the BJP smelling blood.
But sending it, experience has hit it hard bang on time.
Similarly, Abhishek’s ascension at the national level will allow him to further hone his skills and have more say in party affairs, superseding several old timers who abhorred his dominance.
A force to reckon with in national politics will eventually smooth the succession process once Didi decides to hang up her boots.
Abhishek has been groomed with perfection by his aunt right from the scratch, and all rumours of a rift between the two in the past have faded into oblivion.
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Call it a stratagem that was implicit at the outset but all out in the open now is a corroboration of Mamata’s astuteness as a political leader.
Henceforth, think twice before rubbishing her as a whimsical and temperamental political tactician.
