West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee’s attempt to seek a fourth consecutive victory is facing serious challenge from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it is determined to break her uninterrupted run and come to power in a state that has so far not entertained a right-wing party government.Popularly called “Didi”, Banerjee has long played the “women’s card” not just by instituting pro-women schemes that provide government backing for the economic empowerment of women, but has also sought to diversify India’s male-dominated political sphere by giving tickets to women candidates.By ensuring the victory of Menaka Guruswamy, an openly gay Supreme Court advocate with two children in the recently held Rajya Sabha election – Guruswamy will be the first LGBTQ parliamentarian in India’s history – Banerjee once again showcased her determination to becoming a champion of women’s rights.“There are many who talk of women holding half the sky. But Didi believes in it and has launched schemes and adopted policies to implement that in letter and spirit,” says Chandrima Bhattacharya, minister of state for health and family welfare in the government.Of the 6.40 crore voters in West Bengal, more than half, 3.66 crore, are women. The voters list has shrunk by 15.9 per cent in the last few months, with 7.66 crore voters in the 2021 polls reduced to 6.44 crore after the deletion of 64 lakh voters, of which half are women. The names of another 60 lakh voters is on hold.In the last Assembly election of 2021, TMC won 215 out of 294 seats in the Assembly, of which 33 are women. BJP won 77 seats – only 6 are women.In the Lok Sabha too, of TMC’s 29 MPs, 11 are women. These include theatre director Arpita Ghosh, athlete Swapna Burman actresses Satabdi Roy, June Malia and Sayani Ghosh, singer Indrani Sen and the fiery woman with a stellar academic background Mahua Moitra. BJP has 12 MPs from Bengal, but none are women.In this election, 52 TMC women find space in the total list of 291 candidates, as many as 18 per cent. In comparison, in BJP’s first list of 177 candidates, only 11 women have been given tickets.Since coming to power in 2011, when she broke the 34-year rule of the CPIM led Left Front, Banerjee realised early that she could create a “women’s constituency” – something Prime Minister Modi has done in recent years with great success – by instituting pro-women policies.Schemes like ‘rupashree’ and ‘kanyashree’ help poor families marry their daughters, plus provide cash incentives to continue their education, prevent child marriage and trafficking of women. ‘Swastha sathi’ and ‘khadya sathi’ programmes give basic health coverage up to Rs 5 lakhs, plus rice and wheat to nearly 90 percent of the population. She took an early leaf out of her former Bihar minister Nitish Kumar by providing bicycles to school-going girls and old age pensions to farmers, artisans and women.Former BJP MP from Hooghly constituency Locket Chatterjee believes that both women and men have begun to see through Mamata’s gimmicks. “There is a huge anti-incumbency factor against her and she has not been able to launch any fresh scheme that can be attractive for women,” says Chatterjee.She claims that people have begun to see through her corruption and misgovernance and are eagerly looking for a change.Swati Bhattacharya, journalist and author of ‘Women voters in Bengal’ believes that Chatterjee’s claim is justified to a certain extent, as schemes that were once attractive are now stale and corruption at the lower level in villages has increased the hardship of people.Interestingly, Bhattacharya points out that “people still love Mamata and put the blame for corruption and other misdeeds on her party officials. Didi is above the blame-game, they still love her”.There’s reason for Banerjee’s hold in the villages – she has nominated more women candidates in the panchayat bodies than the mandatory 50 per cent. The TMC controls the bulk of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads — all three tiers in rural Bengal that significantly affects the state’s political outcome.Still, as West Bengal goes to the polls in two phases on April 23 and 29, the question is whether Didi’s image of being part-Superman and part-fighter who will always come to the aid of her people, will be challenged by BJP.The stakes are high, concede Bengalis on both sides of the political aisle. Can Didi, with the help of the state’s women, pull off an unprecedented fourth win?