Ms. Mamta Bannerjee, the most unpredictable volatile player on the arena, now seems to be ageing quickly and her high-pitched warning against the CPM waning day by day. She appeared on the West Bengal scene from nowhere backed by a section of media and rich class considering hers as a firebrand anti-CPM voice inside the Congress(I). With no programme or worked-out policy of any substace her roars have now become mellowed. She married her Trinamul Congress with the BJP with an insatiable hunger to ensure a berth at the Central ministry. The marriage proved to be a boon for the communalist BJP to make easy inroads into West Bengal, but a bane to Ms. Banerjee for the unwelcome treatment by the BJP top guns who have even helped trigger a schism in the TMC ranks. Ms. Banerjee’s patience is now running out for the long wait for winning Vajpayeiji’s mind to secure a berth in his ministry. The other day Ms. Banerjee was the champion of protest against the CPM high-handedness in Midnapore and the adjoining districts. Her howling turned into damp squib when she discovered, to her terror, that the CPI(ML) People’s War had made inroads into those areas and was setting glowing examples of heroism for a parallel, non-parliamentary power in villages. Her enthusiasm for even the people of Midnapore was quashed and she beat a retreat.

(Sanbad Pratidin, 12 July, 2003)