On March 26, the scorching sky over Laudoha village in West Bengal’s Pandabeswar shimmered before the chop-chop sound of the copter blades grew louder. As the helicopter carrying chief minister Mamata Banerjee landed, the vast crowds that had gathered to listen to her broke out into the Trinamool Congress (TMC) war cry: ‘Jotoi Koro Hamla, Abar Jitbe Bangla (No matter how much you attack, Bengal will win again)’. Having served as CM for a consecutive 15 years, the doughty Mamata is gunning for a fourth term. She frames her adversary as no longer just the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but also the Election Commission of India (ECI), whose Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls is trimming Bengal’s 76.6 million electorate by about 11 per cent. Mamata alleges the deletions target voters likely to back the TMC, tilting the balance in the BJP’s favour.
