West Bengal (Changing Colours, Changing Challenges)

On 13 May 2011, Mamata Banerjee,eader of the All India Trinamool Congress, defeated theeft Front to become the state s first female chief minister. It was her rallying cry of poriborton, and her slogan, Ma, Mati, Manush (Mother, Earth, People), which captured the imagination of the people anded to herandslide victory, ending the decades-long dominance of theeft Front. But what triggered this change? And what were the conditions which enabled theeft Front to win election after election in West Bengal with huge margins up to 2006? Then again, when they seemed to be firmly entrenched, how were they routed at the hands of aeader who had cobbled together a party consisting mainly of defectors from the Indian National Congress? Sitaram Sharma, journalist, diplomat and author, attempts to delve into these questions,ucidly unravelling cause-and-effectinks through a careful exploration of the turbulent world of Bengal politics from the partition of Bengal in 1947 to theeftward swing in the 1960s-70s, the gradual downfall of the Communist party culminating in the Singur-Nandigram incident, and the final blow, in 2011, when Mamata Banerjee came to power in this powerful and incisive exposition of the current affairs of West Bengal