West Bengal Vs Centre: A Four Decade Long Confrontation

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee's run-ins with the Centre have probably pushed it a notch higher, but there's no denying that the frosty relationship the state government shares with Delhi, has a history spanning over four decades, barring a brief spell when the Communist Party of India (Marxist), supported UPA - I led by Dr. Manmohan Singh.

From the time that Jyoti Basu became the chief minister of the state in 1977, the CPM for the most part, as opposed to Congress policies, though it did lend support to third front governments led by VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral. The CPM shared an icy relationship with the Centre barring the first four years of UPA-I, at the end of which it withdrew its support to the Manmohan Singh government over the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008. The relationship got so bitter over the issue that following his refusal to resign from his Speakership of the Lok Sabha, claiming the post was above party politics, the party expelled Chatterjee.

Mamata Banerjee ended the 34 year-long reign of the CPM in 2011. She upped the ante in her face-offs with the Centre after she stepped down as Union railway minister in UPA II and became chief minister of West Bengal. Things went rapidly downhill after the BJP-led NDA government headed by Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Since then, the fiery TMC leader and West Bengal chief minister for more than eight years now, has had a spate of slugfests with the BJP top brass including PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah.