In the second half of first phase of Assembly elections in West Bengal, voters from 31 constituencies will cast their votes on April 11. While Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is battling the joint salvo of the unofficial Left-Congress alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too is looking to make a dent in the region.
"I would tell reporters from Kerala to tell my brothers and sisters in that state that here the Left and Congress are fighting together and there they are against each other. This is very bad. It's unfortunate party politics, it's unethical, apolitical and also there is 'Dosti' and in Kerala there is 'Kusti'," said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The tables turned decisively five years ago, but politics in West Bengal never fails to surprise. If the previous elections were about Mamata Banerjee's meteoric rise to power by overthrowing the seemingly immovable Left, it's her opposition this time who in their bid to stay politically relevant have formed a grass roots alliance despite their leadership shying away from formally calling it so.
The Left and the Congress, the unlikeliest of political partners, have joined forces against Mamata and Manas Bhunia, a senior Congress leader contesting from his traditional seat of Sabang in West Midnapore, is counting on that joint strength to defeat the Trinamool Congress.
"We know we have separate ideologies and have confronted Left earlier. But it was painful to see that our brothers and sisters who deserted Congress and formed Trinamool Congress were attacking Congress much more than the Left," said Bhunia.
Bhunia was a member of Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet when she formed the state government in 2011 and quit after his party decided to walk out of the alliance. This time around he was among the handful of state Congress leaders who initially resisted shaking hands with the Left before bowing to the decision of the party high command. Bhunia concedes that the gamble could just backfire.
He said, "Life is a gamble. You have to take risks and face it. Every individual must take risks in order to exist. But people's decision is the last answer. In every fight there is a risk. We have to take that risk to exist in this battle."
Non-Trinamool pockets in West Bengal are clutching to their last straw, a ground level alliance between erstwhile political opponents, the Congress and the Left to take on the Trinamool Congress. Only time will tell whether or not that gamble would pay off, but it is without doubt that the start has been tentative and fraught with suspicion.
In the constituency of Pingla, Trinamool Congress candidate Somen Mahapatra looks confident of his win. A doctor by profession, Mahapatra was moved by Mamata from his previous constituency in the neighbouring East Midnapore district where he was a sitting MLA and repositioned in Pingla. His task at hand is to uproot the Left from one of its last remaining bastions of the region.
"This development has, in fact, made my task easier. Earlier we saw two nationalist parties come together. But now we see that efforts are on to mix oil with water. People know that these political leaders are trying to take them for a ride. So I feel that people will bless me even more this time because they will reject this unholy alliance," said Mahapatra.
Spirits were high at the Trinamool Congress party office in Midnapore town with activists celebrating the induction of the newest workers who have migrated from both the Congress and the CPM. Contrary to the claims that it is on account of grassroots pressure that the two parties have forged the tie up, CNN-IBN encountered several seasoned activists who were irked by the alliance and quit their parties to join the Trinamool Congress.
"The Congress changes colours like a chameleon. They have no fixed sense of purpose. I have been an insider, so I know. That's while I left Congress and joined Trinamool," said Amitabha Dewan, who shifted from the Congress to the Trinamool Congress.
Amit Pandey, who migrated from the CPM to the TMC, said, "They have only responded to a situation where neither of the two parties can take on Trinamool alone. So they have come together. But people will reject them and people are always the final word in a democracy."
However, it is the BJP which is looking to gain a foothold in central Bengal's Jungalmahal districts amid the muddy waters. The party's state president, Dilip Ghosh, is himself a candidate from the Kharagpur town seat and has challenged Congress veteran Gyan Singh Sohanpal alias 'Chacha ji'.
And it is not just the blessings of lord Ram that Ghosh is relying on to drive a wedge through the traditionally warring foes now turned friends to increase his party's vote and seat share in the Bengal state Assembly.
"People, especially the youth of this country are enthused with the BJP. They have seen the performances of the Congress, the CPM and now the Trinamool Congress. All of them have failed. And those who have failed twice are trying to pass by coming together. I think the voters will reject them since this is an unethical and opportunistic alliance. They do not want to turn back, only move ahead," said Ghosh.
Alliance or no alliance, it is the mindset of the grass roots of West Bengal that leaders across political parties seem to be struggling to accurately assess even as the state goes for its second phase of polls. And although it's a little late in the day to rectify any false steps that may have been taken or too early to take credit for a master stroke which may have been played, it's one big thorn in the Trinamool Congress flesh which the party is finding difficult to ignore.
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