Shikha Mukerjee | Punitive Governance Leads to Politics of Victimisation

The script for the elections in four states -- Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala -- scheduled for 2026 is being written by the parties in power and parties in the Opposition because there is no room for complacency. From playing footsie, cooperative federalism style, with the BJP with an eye to getting the Modi government to pay dues owed to the state as Kerala has done to joining combat over Centre’s discriminatory policies and retaliatory measures like Tamil Nadu over language nationalism through the three-language New Education Policy or apprehensions that there would be a relative decline in the number of constituencies as and when the delimitation is announced, the states are preparing for battle, with the regional challenger as well as the BJP and the campaign machine spearheaded by Mr Modi and masterminded by Mr Shah. As Opposition-ruled states, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, with a total of 88 Lok Sabha seats, constitutes just over 16 per cent of the total 543 elected seats; the three states together constitute over 37 per cent of the non-BJP, now-defunct INDIA group. Any change that weakens the base of the DMK in Tamil Nadu, where the BJP is working hard to stitch together an Opposition, of the TMC in West Bengal, where the BJP is the principal challenger with 65 seats out of 294 in the state Assembly, or in Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front with 99 seats out of 170 under Pinarayi Vijayan’s leadership, is up against the Congress-led United Democratic Alliance on one hand and an aggressive BJP on the other, will significantly alter the dynamics of the BJP versus non-BJP Opposition fight. Unlike Kerala, where Mr Vijayan, for reasons that are critical to defeating the UDF, has to necessarily find ways of wooing the Modi government, even as he vents against the Centre’s discrimination and punitive measures, the CPI in West Bengal has finally come up with one move that allows it to take on the TMC and BJP for different reasons.