Satire and Cartoons: Mamata’s Bid to Win Back Bengal Gets a Social Media Makeover

After an anti-incumbency wave cut the Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha tally in West Bengal from 34 seats to 22, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party has turned to a social media makeover as its newest tool. The TMC has relaunched her Facebook and Twitter campaigns in Kolkata under the name “Amar Gorbo Mamata” (Mamata, My Pride), filled with polished cartoons.

A cartoon-led campaign

The new pages are widely seen as part of political strategist Prashant Kishor’s plan to steady Banerjee’s position in the state. They display cartoons and caricatures highlighting the TMC government’s popular schemes and achievements, and also share old photographs of the Chief Minister with leaders from across the political spectrum to recall her ties with them. The approach is being read as an attempt to cool the state’s heated political climate by getting messages across through cartoons.

On August 16, marking the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Twitter handle posted a cartoon showing Banerjee and her mother, Gayatri Devi, seated on the floor of her Kalighat home with the BJP veteran. In it, Vajpayee accepts a malpoa, a Bengali sweet pancake, from Gayatri Devi as Banerjee thanks him for visiting. Besides paying tribute, the image served as a quiet reminder of her past rapport with senior BJP leaders.

What happened next

In the 2021 West Bengal assembly election, the Trinamool Congress won 215 seats and the BJP 77, and Mamata Banerjee remained Chief Minister.

See also: elections and political leaders.

Originally published on 19 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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