Stay updated with breaking news from Mohammad yahiya. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
UPDATED: January 17, 2021 09:53 IST Shaky vote bank: File picture of Mamata Banerjee at an Id rally in Kolkata(Photo: Debajyoti Chakraborty/Getty Images) It was the end of May 2019. The BJP s aggressive campaign against Mamata Banerjee s appeasement politics bore fruit as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost 12 seats in the parliamentary election to wind up with a reduced tally of just 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. Hardly had the West Bengal chief minister got time to adjust to the new reality of the BJP becoming her chief challenger than a seemingly innocuous question at a post-results press conference on whether she ll attend Iftaar parties threw her into a temper. I appease Muslims, no? she said. I ll go there a hundred times. Je goru doodh dei tar lathi-o khete hoi (I am willing to be kicked by a cow that gives milk). Nothing, she made it clear, would stop her from changing her stance towards a community that had fetched her rich political divi ....