West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee leads a protest rally from Jadavpur to Hazra Crossing against ED raids on I-PAC office in Kolkata
KOLKATA: Coinciding with its fight against ED over searches on I-PAC, Trinamool Congress released on Saturday a three-minute campaign song and music video titled ‘Jotoi koro hamla, abar jitbe Bangla’ (Attack as much you can, Bengal will win) to galvanise workers ahead of the Bengal elections this summer. The song has echoes of TMC’s 2021 campaign theme, “Bangla nijer meye-kei chaye” (Bengal wants its own daughter), in a reference to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. This time, weaving “Bengali asmita” (pride) into its campaign narrative, the video outlines TMCs core campaign planks in the run-up to the polls. The video highlights attacks on religion and Bengali language, stressing that the political battle is also about “saving Bengal’s plurality” both in religion and personal choices. Protests against attacks on Bengali-speaking migrants also feature in the clip. According to a TMC senior, two images spell out the narrative for party workers. One is Mamata’s fighter perception, reinforced by a split-second image in which she transforms into a Royal Bengal tigress. The second is the positioning of black-and-a-white images of PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah – to mark out the key adversaries. The campaign this time is a repositioning of TMC’s 2024 Lok Sabha election theme, “Jonogoner Gorjon, Banglay BJPer Bisorjon” (Roar of the people, BJP’s ouster from Bengal), TMC’s senior functionaries said. TMC had first used this theme ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, a contest that came with a series of firsts for Mamata. “This was the first time she contested from a seat outside Kolkata. It was the first time she had to deal with poll-eve defections on a large scale, including two senior ministers led by Suvendu Adhikari,” a TMC senior said. Listing the other milestones, the senior pointed out that it was the first time that Mamata led an entire 50-day election campaign, “not on her feet but on a wheelchair” after she was injured in a pre-poll car mishap. “It was the first time she had allowed a poll strategist to recalibrate her political strategy,” the senior said, alluding to I-PAC founder Prashant Kishor.
