Kolkata: There are stark similarities between Gujarat and West Bengal these days. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone back to his turf for Vibrant Gujarat celebrations, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given personal touch to the mega rally on Saturday.
Gujarat's biennial investors' summit has over the years contributed immensely to PM Modi being projected and seen as using the opportunity to the hilt to build a national space for himself. Banerjee's United India rally, too, has all the trapping of what the summit began as.
The only difference is that while Vibrant Gujarat is a mega economic summit, West Bengal CM's rally at Brigade Ground is being readied as a mega political summit which her supporters hope will catapult her to national space.
You walk into Kolkata from the airport and the precision in terms of arrangements was there to see. Huge, larger than life cutouts of Banerjee interspersed with those of regional leaders.
Random tables have been set up at the airport to greet the attendees with senior TMC leaders deployed at the arrival to welcome the guests. And the ground, where the event to be held, is grand in look. Several stages and performance as fillers have been arranged for the mega rally.
Banerjee hopes that the packed stage would be a showcase of people she has managed to get together. However, the underlying confusion in the front being cobbled by regional parties cannot be missed.
Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are there, but their chiefs have given it a miss. Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) is busy with his anti-BJP, anti-Congress front and has refused to share stage with Congress. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik is maintaining distance from not just BJP and Congress, but also from the front.
But it's Banerjee who is the player one needs to watch with interest. She is aware of her handicap. First is her language. Her heavily accented Bangla may not resonate in the national scene. But she hopes to make up for it with her image of a fighter, who unseated the once-thought-to-be invincible Left. She is trying to send the message that Modi too is not invincible.
Gone is her reluctance to assume national ambitions. She's now made it clear she wants to take the lead. Modi has shown that a CM can easily make the transition to the country's top job if the game is well played.
His determination and his mega Vibrant Gujarat helped showcase his state as one which was doing well under him. The opulence of attendees added to his persona. Big business houses competed to be seen on stage. Banerjee hopes to do the same with her 'Unite for India' event. She hopes her ambitions and future is vibrant too.
Comments
0 comment