Analysis: The Rise And Fall Of Tinamool's Diamond Harbour Model - Signals From Falta

"The notorious Diamond Harbour model has turned into the 'Trinamool's Loss' model," quipped West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, hours after the Trinamool Congress lost the much-talked about Falta repoll in the state on Sunday.

He added, "a fraudster claimed the title of commander; there's no crime this con artist hasn't orchestrated. To establish his own crime syndicate, this 'cat draped in a tiger's skin' didn't hesitate even to throttle democracy. As a result, turning the previous election into a farce, Trinamool had taken a lead of one-and-a-half lakh votes in this assembly segment. Fifteen years later, when people voted freely, the reality came to light."

The "Diamond Harbour model" had emerged as one of the most talked-about political and governance experiments in West Bengal in the recent times directly linked to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee and his parliamentary constituency of Diamond Harbour.

Banerjee's close aide Jahangir Khan abandoned the electoral fight hours before the repoll, giving the BJP an easy walkover. Banerjee had won the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat with the highest margin across the state in the last general elections.

Politics watchers say this over-hyped "Diamond Harbour model" has backfired for the erstwhile ruling party in Bengal. "The creator of the model himself hailed it. Since it was entirely based on police and administrative support, the model collapsed once the police and administration went into the opponent's hands," said author and political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya.

The "model" signified a style of hyper-local governance that combines welfare delivery, rapid infrastructure development, and direct political outreach, especially during the pandemic that required micro-management to stop the spread of the COVID 19 virus. It is dung this period, Diamond Harbour was also projected as a successful containment model because of aggressive testing and monitoring measures that reportedly reduced positivity rates sharply, unlike rest of the state that was blocked in a bitter battle with the Union Home Secretary for not following the Central guidelines.

At the center of this model are large-scale public service initiatives such as the Sebaashray health camps, pension assistance drives, and the "Ek Daake Abhishek" helpline. In fact, the Trinamool Congress in its manifesto this election, borrowed the Sebaashray template and assured health service at the doorstep, probably the only new promise in its poll manifesto, in this hotly contested election.

According to reports, lakhs of people benefited from free medical consultations, diagnostic tests, medicines, and referrals to hospitals under these programmes and Abhishek Banerjee even took this initiative to Nandigram, in the Backyard of Suvendu Adhikari's bastion just before elections but lost the seat there as well.

Infrastructure development is another pillar of this model. Projects like the Sampriti flyover, Charial Bridge, road upgrades, water treatment facilities, and plans for an apparel hub have been showcased as examples of faster execution and administrative coordination reflecting a strong accountability by the TMC MP.

However, the significance of the 'Diamond Harbour Model' also lies in the political debate it has now triggered. Opposition parties claim that the constituency receives "VIP treatment" because of Abhishek Banerjee's influence within the ruling party, exposing weaknesses in the broader governance system.

Political analyst and author Sayantan Ghosh tells NDTV, this model while being synonymous with Abhishek Banerjee, was starkly different from Mamata Baerjee's grassroot politics which propelled the TMC to power in 2011. "It wasn't a model against Mamata Banerjee's grassroots moralization. Instead, it was more centralised controlled cadre management and voter turnout management. It was micro control and area domination. Abhishek Banerjee gave free hand to the power brokers which turned them to TMC strongmen. The TMC MP was trying to develop his own strongmen network in Bengal. Today the election results indicate it's not just anti-incumbency but vote against the threat culture, intimidation and total domination. And this is very different from Mamata Banerjee's politics," said Ghosh.