While Kerala and Tamil Nadu will play a one-day match, West Bengal has been sent in to play a seven-day test match. I am referring of course to the assembly election schedule announced by the Election Commission (EC). The lengthy schedule did take us in the Trinamool Congress by a bit of surprise, but we have shouldered arms and taken fresh guard. To continue the cricket analogy, our eyes are on the ball, not on the umpire. As far as we can see, there are 294 seats and this is a 294-over match.
Usually, elections in West Bengal begin in the North and then move down to the South. This time, they will begin in Jangalmahal. The Election Commission have done well starting with the constituencies in the Jangalmahal region, which saw Maoist turbulence and where the Trinamool government has strived to bring peace and development, without compromising on the law.
As the election dates were announced, the enthusiasm and quiet confidence of our workers began to become obvious. Media friends have asked me about our campaign issues and communication strategy. It is very simple. We are strengthened by the record of development over the past five years under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The communication roll-out begins next week. It has been designed completely in-house by old hands and party loyalists. It will give voters a simple message: What has been done in your district, by way of development, by the Trinamool government?
To me personally, this election completes a circle. As a younger person and a working professional in Kolkata in the 1980s and 1990s, I realised the CPI(M)-led government was letting down West Bengal. I also sensed that the Congress was either not in a position to defeat the CPI(M), or just not interested. It was this anguish that forced Mamata Banerjee to set up Trinamool on January 1, 1998. She was disappointed and angry that her erstwhile colleagues in the Congress were sabotaging her efforts to take on the Communists. They were mocked as "watermelons" - green outside but red inside.
What was a political belief then is public knowledge today. The Congress and the CPI(M), two also-ran parties, have joined hands in West Bengal. They will not succeed in dislodging Trinamool, but I do wonder with what face they will attack each other in the Kerala election. Why don't they sit across the table in Thiruvananthapuram and swap seats? Why have a mock fight at all? So ridiculous is the situation that for all the false bravado, the CPI(M) state party chief, who is also leader of the opposition in the outgoing West Bengal assembly, has little or no chance of winning his own assembly seat.
When elections come, parties in government often change a lot of candidates and drop current MLAs so as to offset local unpopularity. It is a measure of Trinamool's work that 90 per cent of the MLAs who won in 2011 have been retained and are contesting again. Our list of 294 candidates has already been announced. We had been working on it for months and were ready well before the dates were known. Other than traditional politicians, an eclectic mix of well-known professionals from other fields has been inducted.
Three former national footballers - Bhaichung Bhutia, Syed Rahim Nabi and Dipendu Biswas - as well as former Bengal cricket captain Lakshmi Ratan Shukla are contesting on Trinamool tickets. So is young movie star Soham, as well as some who have come from backgrounds as diverse as investment banking, medicine, the legal fraternity and the media. The effort to broad-base the party and bring a variety of talent into our public life has been a constant theme of Mamata Banerjee's leadership.
Finally, a little about numbers. How many seats will Trinamool win this time? I am hesitant to name a number not because I fear a drop from 2011 - far from that - but because I am unsure about how high the tally can go. As Mamata Banerjee said the other day, "We are dedicating all 294 seats to the people of Bengal. Let them decide how many seats to bless us with."
(Derek O'Brien is leader, Parliamentary party Trinamool Congress (RS), and Chief National spokesperson of the party.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.