Winners Take The Decade

What Worked For Didi

• Voters do not mind dealing with a one-woman party with hardly any internal debate

• Bengal’s GDP growth rate, marginally higher under Mamata than under the Left, bucked national decceleration

• The Sarada scam and the Narada sting thrown at Mamata through the media rebounded on opposition

• Big industry avoided West Bengal but giving away bicycles and cheap rice worked in cultivating a vote-bank of the underclass

• Memories of Left misrule still fresh in voters’ minds after five years for alliance with Congress to bear impact

• Rough elements of the ‘syndicate’ may be out on the streets, but Left ‘goondaism’ cannot be wished away either

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What Worked For Amma

• Insinuations on her health, accessibility, sycophancy found little favour

• GDP growth rate slowed in last five years, but Tamil Nadu is too important to slip

• Welfare schemes all through her term spawned a steady, grateful electorate

• Poll-eve freebies like 50% subsidy on mopeds, 8 gm gold for new brides worked

• DMK made big strides from its 2011 tally, but alliance with Congress weighed it down

• Handling of Chennai floods didn’t have any impact across the state

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