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West Bengal election: How Mamata Banerjee emerged as a giant killer in 2011
The Left Front - a coalition of communist parties - which kept its tight grip on West Bengal since 1977 was dethroned as Banerjee capitalised on the strong anti-incumbency wave blowing in the state in the aftermath of the Nandigram agitation.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee created history in 2011 after she brought down the curtain on the 34-year uninterrupted rule of the Left Front in West Bengal. Banerjee's party won 185 Assembly seats in the election.
The Left Front - a coalition of communist parties - which kept its tight grip on West Bengal since 1977 was dethroned as Banerjee capitalised on the strong anti-incumbency wave blowing in the state in the aftermath of the Nandigram agitation. Banerjee and the TMC also benefited from the Left Front's failure in adapting to new political dynamics as the latter lost its touch with the ground level.
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What was Nandigram agitation?
In 2007, the state government forcibly acquired farmland at Nandigram, a rural area in the East Midnapore district for a special economic zone (SEZ) project. Under this, the then Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government was planning to build a chemical hub. The move sparked major protests as locals pushed back against the government which led to violent clashes between the agitators and the police. Several people were killed while many others injured in the course of the protests.
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In the aftermath of the violence, protests erupted in the state and turned the Left sympathisers to its major critics.
Mamata's support to the protests
Nandigram and the farmers' agitation in Singur over setting up of Tata Motors' factory became the two epicentres of TMC's anti-land-acquisition movements in West Bengal. Both helped Banerjee emerge as the pro-farmer political figure. Banerjee also launched a slogan Ma Mati Manush (Mother, Motherland and People) as she campaigned against the issue.
This year as well Banerjee has gone back to her image of a pro-farmer leader amidst the farmers' agitation in the national capital.
