Bengali (sub) nationalism trumps Hindu nationalism

Bangla nijer meyer kachei thaaklo (Bengal has stayed with its own daughter). When Trinamool Congress (TMC) came out with the slogan "Bangla nijer meyekay chai" in February, it could not have been more prophetic.

Mamata Banerjee may have lost her own electoral battle in Nandigram constituency, but she won the war in Bengal for her party Trinamool Congress, single-handedly—a remarkable landslide victory to stop the mighty electoral machine of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The sweep and extent of TMC's win, which matched its performance in the previous assembly poll five years ago, was unexpected even to Mamata, who said as much in her first press conference post-victory. Although Mamata lost the poll in Nandigram to her former protege Suvendu Adhikari, it will not prevent her from returning to the Chief Minister's chair immediately. All she has to do is face fresh by-elections within six months of becoming the CM.