Arjun Mahato has a dim view of the Trinamool Congress cadre in his area. “Can you imagine, they are telling people that if [West Bengal Chi...
Arjun Mahato has a dim view of the Trinamool Congress cadre in his area. “Can you imagine, they are telling people that if [West Bengal Chief Minister] Mamata [Banerjee] loses, Kanyashree will shut down?” he says with disgust. “All the Trinamool knows how to do is mithya prachar, fake propaganda.”
A Bharatiya Janata Party worker in the district of Purulia, Mahato’s argument is probably correct. It is unlikely that even if the BJP were to win in the ongoing 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, it would shut down Kanyashree – the Trinamool’s popular 2013 cash transfer scheme to teenage schoolgirls aimed at preventing child marriage. But the Trinamool’s “mithya prachar” also illustrates just how important the party considers welfare, large parts of it in the form of cash transfers, as a campaign issue during the polls.
The Trinamool’s outlook is not new. When it came to power in 2011, the party turbocharged welfare compared to the rather lackadaisical approach of the Left. This has obviously won it votes – including the largest-ever mandate in the history of West Bengal in 2016. However, welfare is a double-edged sword for the party: it has also created opponents.
The Trinamool administration’s expanded welfare apparatus has given rise to significant...
