Didi does not drag her feet on matters she considers urgent. And she would clearly not bat an eyelid before usurping an idea especially if that entails upstaging her political rivals.

Therefore, in what many political commentators would no doubt call “a masterstroke”
or yet another masterstroke –by Didi,West Bengal chief min- ister Mamata Banerjee did not just bulldoze to the ground chief opponent BJP’s attempt to win a brownie point with Bengalis before the Parliamentary elections of 2024 but she also grabbed the oppor- tunity herself and turned into her own advantage.

Consider the circumstances. On 20 June, a celebration took place in Raj Bhavan, the Ben- gal Governor House. The BJP government at the Centre had decided to observe the day as “Bengal Foundation Day”. No sooner had the news reached West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, than she dashed off a written communique to the Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose expressing her shock and registering her objection to the idea. The reasons were mainly that the day had never in the history of Bengal been celebrate dasits foundation day and also that for most Bengalis the day actually stood for a “Partition” which was a painful chapter in their lives. On June 20, the concerned parties signed on the dotted line for the final decision to divide Bengal.

But Didi’s “masterstroke” lies in the way that she turned the episode to her own advantage. If the BJP was trying to woo a section of the Bengalis by observing a “Bengal Foundation Day” Didi ensured that it backfired on them by grabbing the opportunity to point out how inappropriate it would be to celebrate that day as a happy one for Bengalis. She also swung into action and, in just over a couple of months, she organized a huge meeting at the secretariat in which she invited Bengal’s intellectuals, industrialists and other important people to discuss the issue in a way that would totally swing opinion in her favor as far as Bengalis were concerned. Bengalis, who would be loath to celebrate June 20, however were completely in agreement that the Bengali New Year Poila Boishakh, which was suggested by Didi herself, was a much more appropriate day to celebrate as a special day for Bengal. And all the while Didi very astutely usurped the idea that Bengalis deserve a special day for themselves. And not to forget, all this with just a few months to go before the Parliamentary elections.