KOLKATA: The street fighter in CM Mamata Banerjee, which always held her in good stead, was evident on Thursday as she walked into I-PAC chief Pratik Jain’s Loudon Street home and stepped out after a seven-minute stay, with a green folder alleging the ED was actually after her party candidate list, poll strategy documents, and SIR-related documents. The CM then stayed for hours at the I-PAC office and left only when Jain reached there and she spoke with him.Incidentally, Thursday was the third time in the past decade that CM Banerjee hit the streets to protest against central agencies’ action on her ministers and officials.
An unfazed CM who hit out at the Centre immediately invigorated her party workers. A charged Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale immediately shared her speech on social media, alleging, “Modi-Shah’s filthy tactics in Bengal reach a new level. This morning, they’re using their lapdog agency ED to steal documents with details of our potential candidates, our election strategy, and our campaign plans. If the Gujarat Gymkhana duo thinks they can use agencies to fight Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, they are very mistaken. Now begins the countdown of Modi-Shah’s fall. You started this and now we will finish it.”
For a worker like Abid Hossain, from Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, or Arijit Banerjee, from Salt Lake, seeing Banerjee at the I-PAC properties reminded them of the time the party was in opposition. “This will help us get even more united. We have always seen her as the firebrand leader. We get the inspiration to hit the streets entirely from her,” said Hossain.On Thursday, she rallied around I-PAC and its director, Pratik Jain, making it clear how valuable they were for the Trinamool. The last time she junked protocol and did something similar was when central agencies arrested Trinamool veteran netas and ministers like Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim in the Narada case in May 2021. Earlier, in 2019, she went to the then commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s Loudon Street home when central agencies intended to search in connection with the Saradha case. “The rise of Didi was always credited with her rise to the centre stage as a political street fighter, a role she is most comfortable in, and one which served her excellently in the past. And the most wonderful thing for her is, the opportunity was handed to her on a platter, as though following a written script. BJP could not feel confident even after FIR. Now they needed to raid I-PAC,” said Trinamool neta Probir Kumar Mukhopadhyay.“The immediate decision that CM Banerjee took to reach Jain’s office and residence, or the decision to walk from 8B to Hazra on Friday, bears this attitude. This paid dividends in the past, and there is no reason why it will not work now. An indication can be seen in how Trinamool workers unitedly hit the streets from Thursday evening,” said political observer Pratip Sinha.“The CM’s positioning as a protester rather than solely a state executive gains added significance as the state moves closer to a poll cycle. This performative shift from institutional authority to political mobilisation echoes earlier moments where executive power was symbolically recast as resistance. Such actions reflect a strategic blending of governance and protest, aimed at political consolidation and narrative building,” said Sayoni Chowdhury Patra, a political science professor.
