The immediate aftermath of the Amphan cyclone in the summer of 2020 had left large swathes of Calcutta in darkness for days, rekindling memories of a Bengal between the '60s and the '80s.

In an election year, people pouring out on the streets of Calcutta demanding power supply be restored would have set any leader thinking on their feet. Mamata Banerjee did the same and painted the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation as the public enemy. She had repeatedly called out the power utility for the delay in restoring services, threatened to disrupt its monopoly and reminded people the seeds of the utility's monopoly were planted during the erstwhile Left Front rule.

For whatever reasons, in the 10 months or so before the state elections Mamata did little to break that monopoly.

Power supply restored, Amphan and its aftermath of destruction were now behind the lives of the Calcuttan.

The election of 2021 came and went, facilitating Mamata’s return to Bengal’s corridors of power with a slightly higher number of MLAs than five years ago.

Now, less than a month after assuming charge as chief minister for the third consecutive time, Mamata Banerjee faces her biggest administrative challenge in the form of Yaas.

The intensity of this cyclone, weathermen have been saying, is likely to be a notch lower than the last year’s super-cyclone. But, there is no guessing the political storm that it might lead to in the coming days. Mamata has to minimise not just the damage from the natural disaster but also plug the possibilities of political damage it might cause.

"The BJP has been stopped this time around, but they are very much there. They will keep pushing themselves as the alternate force. Any misstep from Mamata and the voters might think otherwise," said a political observer.

Politically, Mamata can ill afford to bungle preparations and the relief operations in the aftermath of Yaas. Her government is firmly in the saddle but the battle-weary chief minister is well aware that mismanagement of two successive cyclones could cost her dearly, especially when the civic bodies go to polls.

Had it not been for the pandemic, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation would have gone to polls last year itself. With the Covid outbreak still raging, there is no certainty when elections will be held for the CMC and at least 122 other municipal corporations and municipalities in the state.

“With the victory in the Assembly polls with such a huge mandate, we have to start preparing for the next round of elections. Next is the turn of the civic bodies and those elections are fought on local issues,” said a senior Trinamul leader.

Local issues hold key

On those local issues, there is a lot that is left unanswered by the Trinamul leadership. Unlike the Assembly polls, where the grassroots-level corruption did not generate any response from the electorate, the civic polls will be a different ball game.

At the local level, supply of electricity, water, ration, maintenance of sewer pipelines etc take precedence over debates on secularism.

The biggest complaints post-Amphan came from the affected villages ravaged by the storm where people had to go without food and shelter for days.

Block development officers, councillors were seen scribbling “due” on paper chits and handing it to residents when they went asking for rice and tarpaulin sheets that were promised to them.

Mamata could not shift the blame to an outside agency or even the Opposition parties, since it is the Trinamul Congress which controls more than 80 per cent of the panchayats in the state.

Villagers repair an embankment with sand bags and plastic sheets along the Vidyadhari river at Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas on Monday. Telegraph Picture

Over 2,000 complaints

The government had received over 2,000 complaints of local Trinamul functionaries replacing list of beneficiaries with their kin. In Hooghly’s Garalgachha, for example, the panchayat pradhan had listed his number against names of about 100 beneficiaries in a list of 166.

Later, in a bid to control damage, Mamata had set up a committee with Opposition leaders included to supervise the relief distribution process.

This time, Mamata has removed Jyotipriya Mullick from the food department, which he headed since 2011.

According to a section of the Trinamul Congress, Mamata, in her third innings, has been showing a temperament for learning. "She is attending meetings called by the Centre, and she has changed ministers. Now she can go to the people and tell them 'I personally sought more funds but the Centre denied'. Her presence increases her credibility," said a senior Trinamul leader.

'Step-motherly Centre'

On Monday, Mamata attended a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah in a break from the past when the chief minister avoided attending meetings called by the Centre. Her decision to stay away from such meetings became the talking point in the just-concluded elections.

At the meeting, the Centre committed to an advance of Rs 400crore to the state government, but Mamata dubbed it as inadequate and a "step-motherly" gesture towards Bengal since "sister states' of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha were porimised Rs 600cr each.

“Amphan had come in the midst of national lockdown. Workers had left for their homes in adjacent Bihar and Jharkhand and could not return. The restoration was delayed because of the lack of manpower,” said a government official. This time the administration as well as the power utility have the advantage of the lockdown being localised with the state government holding the authority on its extension.

Better prepared

The civic bodies in Calcutta and Salt Lake have set up small teams with members from police as well and the power utility for each of the wards, something which wasn’t done last time.

The power utility itself is better prepared for Yaas with over 1,000 teams comprising 2,500 personnel. Joint teams from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and the CESC have been moving around the city removing hoardings, cutting and trimming branches, securing cable. The aim of the government this time is to minimise damage.

In 2021, Mamata managed to come out unscathed from Amphan and its aftermath. How the process of relief measures unroll will have to wait till Yaas is behind us. At this moment, the government must be seen to be working, the optics is important. Mamata is doing just that.