Mamata can still make a strong comeback despite BJP hurdles: Jawahar Sircar

Edited excerpts:

The Election Commission’s decision is a setback for Mamata Banerjee. Do you see this as a major setback?

Well, it is a setback and a last-minute, well-planned hatchet operation. Obviously, Suvendu Adhikari knew what was going on and he is pretty open about it. Candidates don't decide one minute before. It is a decision taken long before.

What is cruel or ironic is that Mamata also used similar tactics. So, in a way, she is getting it back. Suvendu was a lieutenant, so he knows the way Mamata operates. However, it seems a little unfair, simply because this was the first election after four months. There was a lot of groundswell in Bengal against the incumbent government. A lot of people, particularly the middle class, were voicing their concern over the threat to a university. There were also concerns over the threatening of minorities.

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Now, we will not know how many votes Mamata would have got because there was a sympathy wave for her after she got ditched from all sides. People were angry with a lot of corruption in her party, and her MLAs and others were being blamed for it. But most of the people who won on her ticket subsequently switched sides. So, let's put it this way: the corruption went to the BJP side.

That's another issue for the people. We voted these guys out and some of them slipped past our anger. Instead of punishing them, you reward them. Actually, you are protecting them.

Rahul Gandhi has called this a “party theft” allegedly strategised by the Election Commission. Do you agree with that allegation?

I don't see the Election Commission anywhere in this, except that they allotted the symbols and froze the original symbols. In any case, if you look at the Election Commission's past decisions, they have always favoured the majority, including in Maharashtra.

So, do you think the Election Commission is really to be blamed for what has happened, as it happened with Uddhav Thackeray?

Where the symbol allocation is concerned, and the freezing of the name and the original symbol, that can't be faulted. I have been chief electoral officer and we have seen such cases and that really can't be faulted. What can be faulted is the logic which the Election Commission is giving — that both factions should be on an even keel and that is why they have allotted a different party name and a party symbol to both factions.

Also Read: EC freezes TMC name, symbol for bypolls; rival factions told to pick new identities

That is uncharitable to Mamata because she founded the party. If you look at it that way, everybody who got elected on this side or that side is thanks to her. Nobody has been elected anywhere thanks to their own strength.

But once treachery or floor-crossing begins, as happened in Maharashtra, for very profitable reasons—because this part of party politics becomes very profitable—whatever the profit or loss, the fact is this allocation can't be faulted. What can be faulted is the more long-term view of what happened.

What do you think will be the impact on Mamata Banerjee's faction, especially with the October 6 bypolls and the new party symbol? Does she have to start from scratch?

Yes. I would say that many people in Bengal who took extra energy to vote her out now feel pity for her — the way she is being cheated left, right, and centre, even today. So, there is a sympathy factor in her favour.

So if she had a chance to put up a candidate, maybe she would have received a lot of votes, and that would have been very, very inimical to Suvendu's interest. This would have been an interesting result. We would have come to know where we stand. Now, Suvendu has dissipated it all.

Is this also becoming a battle of survival for political parties and a fight over the electoral process?

Look at the last line of Rahul Gandhi's tweet. He is saying that this fight isn't just Mamata Banerjee's. It is a fight of every political party and every voter who wants free and fair elections.

The very legality of many of the actions is doubtful. But we have a Supreme Court that is in thrall of the Commission. If you go through the reading of the order, it almost says that everything that is done is right.

Now, when you say a thing like that, legacy voters and the legacy electoral roll must be part of it in the interest of democracy. We were not sitting and playing marbles when we were in charge of elections.

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From Sukumar Sen in 1951-52 till today, the Election Commission has had one guiding philosophy: you are in charge of voting and you must ensure the maximum participation possible in an electoral process. Even if it means going to the houses and begging them to put their names on the electoral rolls, do it. That was Sukumar Sen's directive.

From then we have gone through hard cases like TN Seshan. We have gone through N Gopalaswami. All of them agreed on one point: this is how we cure the rolls.

You have described the electoral-roll exercise as a kind of project. What exactly concerns you about the process?

Here comes a gentleman with a project and the project appears so deadly. It seems like a project devised by corporate lawyers, because it's full of booby traps. If you escape this booby trap, it's snakes and ladders with a lot of snakes put in. If you escape this one, you get caught in that one.

Start with SDD. Okay, there it's only natural. Then comes mapping. What is this mapping? Mapping where your database is not perfect.

SK Sharma, who was a chairman and technical wizard in his own right, has given it in writing that he was the founder of UIDAI, that is Aadhaar. And he said his database is not clear.

Mamata Banerjee has now announced support for the Congress candidate in Nandigram after her own candidate withdrew. What does this mean? [Update: The Congress candidate has since been arrested].

She has had a love-hate relationship with the INDIA alliance. She is a difficult person to deal with in any team. I have worked with her and I would know a bit about it. We have also seen how she has strayed from the camp to vote for the vice-presidential election and a lot of other things.

Now, this is a smart move. I knew something like this was coming. Because all the Trinamool votes — Mamata's Trinamool votes, if I were to put it — would go waste. So, she's saying, don't let it go waste. Go to the polling station and vote for Congress.

And by doing so, she reciprocates Rahul Gandhi's outstretched hand because, after all, the bad relationship was not a one-sided matter. So, both sides have shaken hands in a time of adversity. That's a good sign.

Do you think Mamata Banerjee can revive politically, or could she go the Uddhav Thackeray way?

I can't say. I tell you why, because it's been four months. Mamata Banerjee is known for introducing impetuous politics in India.

What that means is that you are travelling in a bus. Suddenly, you hear there is a roadblock. What's happened? Mamata Banerjee is blocking the road with 50 supporters. By the time your bus stops there, it's 5,000 supporters. What has happened? Somebody has been hurt somewhere and Mamata decides to block the main road. By the time police come and drag her, it's already an hour. She's got all the TV footage. She claims to be a martyr, etc. That is called impetuous politics.

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She is not showing this impetuous, instant reaction. She is going by the decision of the Calcutta High Court. She is no longer using the surprise tactics, the impetuous politics that I'm talking about.

I still say that Mamata, at 71, you never know. She can make a comeback and a strong comeback despite the BJP putting up so many hurdles and roadblocks.

The Nandigram bypoll is now closely watched. What should we watch for?

It is testing time. The Left remains a factor, and Mamata Banerjee has already said that she is going to support and back the Congress candidate.

We have to wait and watch how it plays out on the ground.