'Despite Some Anti-Incumbency, We Are Overwhelmingly Popular'

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy is a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson of the party. He spoke to Snigdhendu Bhattacharya on the state elections. Excerpts:

What’s special about the 2021 assembly election?

This is an election in which the Prime Minister, the home minister, six chief ministers, 12 Union ministers and 50 MPs are travelling across the state, bringing in party workers from outside states, having booked a majority of the state’s hotels, guesthouses and other facilities for weeks. They are running a violent and vicious campaign. It’s a Rajsuya Yagya no state election has seen before.

Why is Bengal the BJP’s target? Is it the weakness of the ruling party that makes them smell blood?

No, it’s because since dem­onetisation, TMC has emerged as the strongest critic of the Modi regime. Our leader worked for coordination between opposition parties, to forge an opposition alliance. They want to crush the TMC to prevent losses at the national level.  

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Didn’t TMC’s unpopularity help the BJP’s rise in Bengal? It’s not without a reason that they won 18 Lok Sabha seats and secured 40 per cent votes.

Where do you see our party’s lack of popularity? Our vote share did not reduce. Our tally of seats reduced because the CPI(M) tactically shifted its votes to the BJP. They thought they could return to power if the BJP managed to push us back. But we remained the largest party in terms of vote share and seats won.

So you are saying there is no anti-incumbency?

I would be a fool to do so. Every rule generates anti-inc­umbency. A rule for 10 years is bound to leave a set of people dissatisfied. Every rule for a little longer period gives birth to corrupt persons around power centres and these do damage the ruling party. This happens everywhere. But the party has identified the issues and taken corrective measures.

Doesn’t the recent migration of TMC leaders to the BJP hint at shifting of political grounds?

The BJP has used money and the power of central agencies to get some of our leaders. Except for a few, others do not matter. Even Suvendu Adhikary had been damaging the party from within. In 2014, the CBI summoned him and he flew to Delhi the next morning and met someone secretly. All action against him stopped. After joining the BJP, he admits he has been in touch with Amit Shah since 2014.

There seems to be dissatisfaction over lack of job opportunities. Colleges and ITIs increased during the last 10 years, but their graduates are not seeing jobs here. Wouldn’t this affect the party?

This could be the case—not getting a job after completing a course is frustrating. But I do not agree that they would all be voting for the BJP. Why should they believe Modi can do in Bengal what he could not do in the rest of the country?

But lack of industrialisation during the Trinamool regime has become a subject of heated debates.

We suffered from the image problem Bengal acquired during the Left regime due to visionless, militant trade unionism. Mamata Banerjee has ended militant trade unionism, strikes and bandhs. But the negative impression has not changed despite the state government’s earnest attempts.

Didn’t the Singur movement resulting in the withdrawal of the Tatas hamper Bengal’s image?

Our stand in Singur has been vindicated by the Supreme Court. We fought for a great cause, against a wrong. The Tatas dealt with the situation impractically.

The state government’s ind­ustrial policy on the question of land has been cited as a reason why industries do not think of Bengal.

The government will not play broker between landowners and industrialists. They will have to negotiate or make use of our land bank. While we tried to draw big industry, we never depended on it—our focus is on agriculture and MSMEs, and we have created a lot of jobs.

Some industrialists cite the TMC government’s attitude towards labour laws as a hindrance.

We will not dilute labour laws. The industries that won’t accept existing labour laws may well give us a miss. We will continue to protect the rights of workers and farmers.