Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now in full swing to take over the Mamata Didi Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. The BJP is putting pressure on Didi by including disgruntled TMC leaders in its party. However, Didi did not hesitate to launch a campaign to win the election. Her sister played a master stroke. The subsidized ‘mother’ kitchen has been launched before the election with the aim of appealing to the state’s poor and people in its favor. Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Ma’ kitchen is available for just Rs 5 in rice, pulses, paribas (vegetable) vegetables and eggs, and such a subsidized canteen with the aim of manipulating the votes of the poor voters in Indian electoral politics is nothing new. Jayalalithaa, the then chief minister and AIADMK supremo, was the first to introduce such a system in Tamil Nadu. Prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she launched ‘Amma Canteen’ in Tamil Nadu. A plate of Idli for Rs 1 in Jayalalithaa’s ‘Amma Canteen’; Rice and sambar for Rs 5; Yoghurt and rice were provided for Rs. ‘Amma Canteen’ was a gift to Jayalalithaa. For this reason, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the AIADMK won 36 of the 36 Lok Sabha seats, giving Jayalalithaa a landslide victory in the 2014 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
