West Bengal: The power of 'pada' club

Since coming to power in 2011, the Mamata government has provided local clubs grants worth Rs 1,300 crore

If the BJP set the rules of microtargeting voters during elections—through its much-analysed booth-management strategies and the well-oiled system of appointing panna pramukhs (people in charge of shepherding/ managing voters whose names appear on a single page of the voter list)—the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal is showing some inventiveness in microtargeting government welfare schemes and more.

Thanks largely to its enthusiasm for community festivals like Durga Puja but also the famed evening adda in all neighbourhoods, West Bengal has quite a proliferation of local clubs—there is one in virtually every pada (neighbourhood). The pada club is an informal power centre of sorts.