Round one of the battle between the Trinamul Congress and the Centre over the release of due wages of MGNREGS workers has gone to the ruling party in Bengal, especially to Abhishek Banerjee, said Trinamul insiders.

After a meeting with governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Monday evening, the Trinamul national secretary pressed a pause button on the movement against the Narendra Modi government till November 1.

“The governor took note of our demand and so we have to give some time to him as a respect to the chair.... But the movement will not be over till the demand is met,” said a source in Trinamul.

As the stage erected near Raj Bhavan for Abhishek’s dharna was getting dismantled and Trinamul workers started heading home, several senior party leaders told this newspaper that they had all the reasons to be happy with the outcome of the movement that had begun with a two-day protest in New Delhi before being shifted to Calcutta.

“Just look at the reaction of the BJP leadership and the governor over the last few days.... Initially, they all were in a mode of denial on the issue of release of due wages for 21 lakh workers, but now, they are toeing a different line,” said a source in Trinamul, referring to three key developments over the past four-five days.

First, Bose assured the Trinamul delegation that met him in Raj Bhavan on Monday that he would take steps for the release of the due wages in 24 hours and left for Delhi.

Second, the BJP’s central leadership dispatched junior rural development minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti to Calcutta on Saturday to defend the Centre’s stand on the issue.

Third, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said in front of Sadhvi that the ministry should try to identify those who had genuinely put in their labour in MGNREGS projects and pay them their dues.

The three developments, the Trinamul source said, indicated that the BJP was clearly on the backfoot and that was the biggest takeaway for Abhishek who was leading the first major people’s movement.

Unlike most Trinamul leaders, Abhishek, 35, did not cut his teeth as a leader in the Opposition space and this had often been billed as his weakness. By leading a movement involving poor people in the absence of his aunt Mamata Banerjee, who has been out of action because of illness, the young leader also cemented his position in a leadership role beyond doubt, multiple Trinamul leaders said.

The Trinamul leaders are of the opinion that the tussle over the wage dues was heavily tilted towards the ruling party which would spearhead more movements on the issue.

“We have demanded, on the basis of provisions included in the Act, payment of interest on pending wages.... Will the Centre concede to that demand?” asked a source, before adding that the Centre was unlikely to give in.

And even if they give in, the source added, it will favour Trinamul as it will be established that the funds freeze was flawed and politically motivated.

“Suvendu was the most belligerent among all BJP leaders.... He had earlier claimed several times that the funds flow was frozen because of him. Now, he has begun talking about the release of wages for those who had genuinely put in their labour,” said the source.

The Trinamul dispensation said Adhikari’s U-turn was another endorsement of what Abhishek had been saying for months while demanding the due wages of over 21 lakh MGNREGS workers. Abhishek said many times that Bengal was the only state that was denied of the MGNREGS funds by the Centre.

The fact that Abhishek's allegation was right was first endorsed by the Union Rural Development Ministry in a reply to the Parliament on August 1, 2023. In response to a question by Congress MP Ramya Haridas, the ministry said by invoking Section 27 of the MGNREGA, the Centre had blocked payment of over Rs 7,500 crore to Bengal for “non-compliance of directives of the Central government” since December 2021. The reply also mentioned that barring Bengal, there was no pendency for more than five months in wage disbursal for any MGNREGS worker in other states.

"The movement by our leader and the reaction of the BJP have together helped us create a narrative of central deprivation of Bengal, which will be our biggest campaign arsenal for the Lok Sabha polls," said another source.

"The CPM championed this central deprivation theory in its heyday and won three successive elections, in 1982, 1987 and 1991.... The narrative of central deprivation does work in Bengal," he added.

With this narrative, the Trinamul establishment is confident of taking on the BJP's corruption-related fusillade aimed at the ruling party in Bengal.

"This narrative of deprivation involves over 21 lakh people and has a much wider reach than the politically motivated corruption cases that central agencies are probing in Bengal.... Let us see how the BJP responds to it," said a source, before adding how Abhishek had woven in the "CBI and the central agency angle" in the entire narrative.

During a rally in Alipurduar on April 8, Abhishek had first dared the BJP-led Centre to order a CBI probe into the alleged corruption in the implementation of the rural job scheme in Bengal.

"He had told the Centre to order a CBI probe into the alleged corruption related to 100-days work.... He said the guilty should be punished, but the wage dues must be cleared. By doing this, he made it clear Trinamul is not interested in shielding those involved in corruption," said the source.

The BJP thinks the controversy over the issue will further expose Trinamul as the matter is now under the scanner of the Calcutta High Court.

"The matter on how dummy accounts were used to siphon off money from MGNREGS is under the scanner of the court... We are confident that the irregularities in the entire process will be exposed and the state government and Trinamul will have a major face loss. All their calculations of deriving political gains will go awry," said Rahul Sinha, senior BJP leader and former president of the party's state unit.