How Bengal politics is dependent on syndicate raj, corruption and strongmen like Anubrata Mondal

The political history of West Bengal is not only about the political parties like the left front or the Trinamool congress. The history of Bengal politics will show the dependence of the political narrative on the syndicate raj culture, strongman, and corruption. While the top leaders or the face of the parties remain clean, the dirty underbelly of Bengal politics works around the clock across the regimes. These are the open secrets of Bengal politics. However, the arrest of 62-year-old TMC leader Anubrata Mondal popularly known as Keshto Da is a hard reminder of how this dirty political underbelly works in Bengal.

The ruling party of West Bengal the Trinamool congress under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faced a massive setback a few days ago after the arrest of the party's Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mondal for his alleged involvement in the cattle smuggling case.

How TMC inherited strongman culture from the Left?

The corruption in Bengal is a day-to-day affair. It happens in many ways but several researchers have shown that the key to this corruption is bribery. Bribes or given to every section starting from the administration to the politicians. But these do not happen arbitrarily or haphazardly. In every district of Bengal, there are strongmen like Anubrata Mondal who control these activities.

Under the left front regime, every district had a strong man of the party and the entire syndicate of corruption used to work based on these people. Political analysts and researchers have shown that the TMC inherited these cultures.

Dr. Suman Nath, an assistant professor of Anthropology at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Government College published a paper named Everyday Politics and Corruption in West Bengal: Reflections on Strategies of Trinamool Congress based on his groundwork in the district of Bengal. He wrote, “The continuation of the TMC regime, even with serious charges of corruption, is a result of a calculated strategy against The party grid developed by the CPIM led left front over the years.”

In Nath’s research, he noted that the Left front developed a culture called “party society”. The means according to his research, “ The political mediation through different hierarchies – booth committee, branch committee, local committee and family, district committee through which decisions were made used to be well organised…”

In this practice, the leaders who control the gram panchayats of Bengal become more powerful and the ruling parties promote these people because by this kind of centralisation of power the ruling regime gets an easy opportunity to implement their schemes without many hurdles.

How TMC continued the syndicate raj of the Left?

Similarly, the TMC inherited the syndicate raj culture from the left front. The entire land acquisition under the Left rule used to happen through these syndicates. For example, in the Rajarhat township project, where the land mafias bought several acres of land from the poor people and landless farmers, when the left-front government wanted to develop the area, they directly dealt with these mafias.

A similar story can be found in Nandigram, where an SEZ was to be developed under the Left Front. There were several allegations of forceful land acquisition by the local CPIM strongman, Lakhan Sheth. After Mamata Banerjee came to power, the Syndicate Raj, along with the mafias, shifted the ship and joined hands with the TMC. Mamata Banerjee's TMC developed its own dirty underbelly by inheriting these two notorious cultures from the left front.

What is the significance of Anubrata Mondal?

Anubrata Mandal, or Keshto Da, is a perfect example of how the amalgamation of the Syndicate Raj and the strongman culture formed the underbelly of Bengal‘s politics under Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Anubrata Mondal was part of the TMC for over two decades. The Birbhum district of Bengal used to be the bastion of the Left. No opposition party used to have any say in this district. Birbhum became notorious for political violence after joining the left. After the fall of the CPIM, Anubrata Mandal emerged in the district of Birbhum. A trusted lieutenant of Mamata Banerjee, Mondal has never fought any elections. But each and every person in Birbhum and also in Bengal knows that Mondal was more powerful than any minister or top bureaucrat.

Under Anubrata Mondal, the TMC won the maximum number of uncontested Panchayat seats in the Birbhum district from 2013–2018. In the 2016 and 2021 Bengal assembly elections, Anubrata Mondal ensured the best strike rate for the TMC in this district. According to TMC insiders, Anubrata Mondal used to control not only the entire syndicate Raj, smuggling rackets, and administration of Birbhum, but also several neighbouring districts such as Murshidabad.

Why is Mamata Banerjee siding with Anubrata?

There are several reasons why Mamata Banerjee has not taken a strong position against Anubrata Mandal but extended her support. Some of the party insiders believe that the TMC is heavily dependent on the district leaders and the block leaders. Distancing herself from Anubrata Mandal will demoralise the leadership at the district and block levels of Bengal.

A senior TMC member, on the condition of anonymity, said, "A party does not work based on cabinet ministers but on the booth committees, district committees, and zonal committees. Leaders like Anubrata Mondal are the rocks behind the organisation. This is why the BJP is trying to target such leaders."

Political analysts in Bengal believe that Mamata Banerjee is not in a position to look away from strongmen like Mondal. They believe that if Mamata Banerjee does not support Anubrata Mandal, then the strongmen who gather and control the money supply for the party will be hurt. A senior leader who did not want to be named said, "The media is only seeing the condition from outside. If the district, zonal and booth level leaders and organisers lose faith in the party leadership and join the BJP, then the entire structure will fail. Our opposition exactly wants that."

Why Mamata Banerjee might face infighting in TMC if her support persists for Anubrata?

Many things are changing inside the TMC very fast. The emerging power inside the TMC is the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, the general secretary of the party, Abhishek Banerjee. It is well-known in the political circles of Bengal that Anubrata Mondal never had a good relationship with Abhishek. According to sources, before the 2021 Bengal assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee's TMC joined hands with Prashant Kishor. The latter also warned Mamata against Anubrata Mandal.

Political analysts and also a significant section of the TMC, which is close to Abhishek Banerjee, believe that the TMC supremo should distance herself from such corrupt leaders. Abhishek took a similar stance in the case of Partha Chatterjee, and, importantly, Mamata Banerjee agreed with him in that case. But in the case of Mondal, if this difference remains as it is, then there is a high chance that a rift will grow inside the party. Significantly, after the arrest of Anubrata Mondal, several posters appeared across Kolkata where it was claimed that a new TMC would be formed under the leadership of Abhishek Banerjee. In these posters, there was neither any mention nor a picture of Mamata Banerjee.