CALCUTTA, 13 April 2004 — Mamata Banerjee is feeling increasingly cornered as an aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party tightens the screws on Trinamul Congress before the upcoming parliamentary elections in West Bengal.

Addressing an election rally at Dum Dum on Saturday, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu publicly warned Trinamul Congress that its MPs would be given Cabinet berths in the NDA government only if the party performed better than in 1999.

Trinamul Congress, a key NDA constituent, bagged eight out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal five years ago. The Left Front won 29 and the Congress party three.

Ms Banerjee, who shared the dais with Naidu in federal minister Tapan Sikdar’s Dum Dum constituency, was visibly embarrassed by the BJP threat. Naidu’s “perform or perish” ultimatum is particularly significant because Trinamool is expected to win fewer seats this time.

Ms Banerjee is also under intense pressure because of promises in NDA’s manifesto to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya and expedite privatization of coal and mining industry.

As coal and mines minister, Ms Banerjee has been opposing privatization tooth and nail. Her main election plank in West Bengal’s industrial areas like Asansole, Durgapur and Raniganj teeming with powerful trade unions is to stop privatization at any cost and allocate government funds for reviving ailing industries.

But the NDA manifesto, which says just the opposite, bears Ms Banerjee’s signature putting the “Bengal tigress” in a very awkward position.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress are rubbing salt in Trinamool’s wounds by shouting from rooftops that Ms Banerjee fully subscribes to the BJP’s anti-Muslim and anti-labor policies and programs.

Admitting that although Trinamool is a signatory to the NDA manifesto, Ms Banerjee says defensively that her stand on the controversial Ram temple and privatization are “different” from the NDA’s.

“I had just half an hour to react before the draft of the NDA manifesto was finalized. But I spoke against privatization. Pramod Mahajan and Venkaiah Naidu told me to give my objections in writing. And I obliged them. So I am strongly opposed to what you see in the manifesto”, she says meekly.

“Besides, with just a handful of MPs you can’t call all the shots all the time”, she added admitting her growing helplessness.

Although she has announced that “neither I nor my party have anything to do with the Ram temple”, analysts say that by putting her signature on the NDA manifesto she has alienated Muslim and secular Hindu voters.

Ms Banerjee is also on a collision course with the state Marxist administration which has charged the Trinamool leader with flouting electioneering rules laid down by the Calcutta High Court.

In view of Higher Secondary examinations in West Bengal, the court has restricted the use of microphones and loud-speakers by political parties across the state.

Ms Banerjee is accused of violating the court’s order by addressing a late night election meeting at Durgapur on Saturday where as many as 14 loud-speakers were used.

The meeting was reportedly held without the permission of local authorities who have charged Ms Banerjee with violating the high court order.