New Delhi: The election promises or manifesto of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections will be different from the past and it will be released on the lines used by different Chief Ministers and political parties in the past.
The polls promises will take a cue from the JDU in Bihar for 2015 polls which was called “Nitish’s 7 Nischay” (2015 Bihar polls), the promise of nine guarantees under the “Navaratnalu scheme” by Jagan Reddy led YSR Congress (2017 Andhra Pradesh polls), Captain Amarinder Singh of Congress who promised “Captain de 9 Point” (2017 Punjab polls) and by Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which had released “Kejriwal ka Guarantee Card” which had listed 10 “guarantees” if AAP was voted back to power in the February 2020 Delhi polls.
All these elections and Chief Ministers had one common factor among them—they had engaged political consultancy Indian- Political Action Committee (I-PAC) just like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The announcement of these “promises” by Banerjee, is likely to happen sometime in mid-March and it will have 10 points while the title of the document will be worded in Bengali.
Election strategist Prashant Kishor, who handles election strategies for I-PAC, has very subtly, over the course of time, turned the West Bengal elections towards an issue of “Outsider (BJP) vs Insider (Mamata Banerjee)”, since the two (AITC and I-PAC) joined hands in November 2020.
He has also ensured that the issue of the “prestige of the daughter of West Bengal” (in reference to Mamata Banerjee) becomes an important emotive election issue for the voters. The announcement of the manifesto or “promises” will be an extension of this strategy as it will prominently focus on the work done by Mamata Banerjee as an individual rather than the “achievements” of the TMC government. This is being done by I-PAC as multiple ground surveys done by its employees across West Bengal, over the course of the last one year, have found that the people have relatively greater soft corner for Mamata Banerjee while disdain for her other party leaders and functionaries due to their alleged involvement in corruption and promoting “cut-money” culture.