Mamata Banerjee has Bengal's support on all issues, except one - as that of a possible Prime Minister for the country.

Not too many days back, when the country was still shaking its head in disapproval of the Congress' manifesto, the Trinamool Congress released it's own Lok Sabha 2014 manifesto. On 22 March, Mamata Banerjee unveiled TMC's manifesto - one that would possibly make the Congress weep with joy and the Narendra Modi-led BJP wince a bit. The cover, with a huge graphic of the map of India painted green and dotted with the Trinamool logo, also lays down TMC's agenda and possibly hints at Banerjee's battle strategy in these polls. The document lays down the principles of the party: Secularism, development and progress. Exactly in that order, thereby hinting that the politics of religion will have a big role to play in West Bengal this poll season.

According to the 2011 census, the Muslim population in Bengal stood at a 25.2 percent of its total population. And the results of the Lokniti, CSDS-IBN National Tracker Poll survey suggest that 35 percent of the state's Muslim votes might swing in favour of the Trinamool Congress, while surprisingly, Congress might get 28 percent of the votes and the BJP not more than 5 percent. Keeping with the mood reflected in the survey, where 1,310 voters were interviewed in March 2014, and 1,264 in January, Mamata Banerjee has also gone all guns blazing to woo the Muslim vote in Bengal.

In fact, Banerjee's manifesto opens by making a strong case for a 'secular India' - one that makes adequate space for all its diverse groups of people. "We believe in a Unique India characterised by its unique diversities... We believe in a secular India," declares the TMC manifesto right at the outset. In fact, the survey shows that TMC's vote share too has witnessed a sharp climb over the past month. While in January 33 percent of the respondents chose to vote for Trinamool, in March this year 38 percent said that they would vote for TMC.

There might be a combination of reasons why the confidence in Mamata Banerjee as the chosen leader for West Bengal has grown. Given that the polls have been made to look like they are revolving around an axis called Modi, by both the Congress and the BJP, the way Banerjee dealt with him is significant.

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate intended to make a blustering impression on West Bengal with his debut rally. True to his trademark part-provocative, part-dismissive style, Modi also made statements ripe for a retort or two by the Mamata Banerjee government. "You were promised parivartan (change), but have you witnessed that parivartan?" he had asked in Kolkata, taking a not-so-subtle dig at the TMC's winning poll refrain. Banerjee, widely considered an extraordinary short-fuse and a loose cannon, kept uncharacteristically quiet and let Modi's taunt die a quick, cold death in the absence of attention. Despite his overtures and slight taunts, Banerjee refused to either antagonise him publicly or pander to him.

Even in her Congress-bashing bouts, she made sure her criticism neither resembled Modi's, nor made any space for similar accusations being lobbed at the party by BJP. On the other hand, she virulently criticised the Congress, dramatically prophesying its doom in rallies and TV interviews. Only in one TV interview she suggested that Jayalalithaa would make for a great PM, making her sound as if she was on a completely different political orbit.

However, what did she effectively do with this stance? Firstly, she rode the anti-Congress wave effectively. Secondly, even in her Congress bashing, she didn't valorise the BJP and hence distance herself from the strong minority vote-bank in the state. She traced every Congress failing to its rampant corruption - an issue topping all political discussions in the country. However, she constantly drew attention to her own state government as an example of dealing with not only an economically turbulent state, but also one fraught with unrest. Thirdly, in spirit, she seemed to keep herself at an arm's length from the bigger, stronger political narratives of the Congress and the BJP, thereby putting a lid on the emerging Aam Aadmi Party's aspirations of making quick inroads into West Bengal with a similar political ideology.

Hence, as the CSDS survey shows, not only does the TMC have 43 percent of vote share in rural Bengal, it has a whopping 54 percent vote share in urban Bengal. The Left has just 21 percent votes from urban Bengal, the remaining shared by all other parties.

However, despite what seems like resounding applause for Mamata Banerjee's government in Bengal, the poll shows that Bengal's voters might not be too keen on seeing her as the country's Prime Minister.

Though the BJP's vote share is a meagre 12 percent in March 2014 (down by 2 percent from January's 2014), 15 percent of the state's respondents prefer Narendra Modi as the country's PM. While votes in favour of Modi have also dropped by 3 percent since January, Banerjee seems to have the endorsement of just 12 percent of the respondents as the country's Prime Minister.

Now, what could be the reason for this near schizophrenic voting pattern in West Bengal, where TMC scores on all counts but Banerjee falls short of Modi in the PM race? The results of another two other numbers might hold the answer. Forty percent of Bengal's respondents failed to decide if UPA deserves a chance at the Centre for the second time. Twenty eight percent said that they wanted UPA back and 32 percent said no. Now most opinion polls across India have suggested that a whopping majority of voters want the UPA out, so what might account for Bengal's confusion? Another survey suggests that Bengal's voters seem to be less concerned about the fate of the government at the Centre, something that is reflected in the findings.

Asked what will be an important criteria while voting in the Lok Sabha polls, 40 percent of the respondents said that the state government's performance will be of prime importance. The Central government, or the UPA's performance, comes as a distant second with just 19 percent of the people concerned about it. So who and for what will people be voting in West Bengal? Not Narendra Modi, not to throw Congress out of power but to make sure that their own state continues to be reassuringly in the hands of the person they handed it over to. The national elections for the average Bengal voter is just a trust vote for the local Trinamool government.

Also, the same concern possibly makes them not want to vote Mamata Banerjee as PM. It won't be too misplaced to say that Banerjee has been the nucleus of both the Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal government. She is the face of both - unfortunately also the only face of any consequence in both. There is not much of a great public faith in either Trinamool as a party rf its other parliamentarians, except for a deep belief in Banerjee's seemingly incorruptible personality. If Banerjee lets the reins of Bengal loose, the state's voters know that the state will descend into the same kind of chaos that was the hallmark of Left rule in Bengal. From his pigeon hole, the Bengal voter sees the Writers' Buildings, not 7 Race Course Road in Delhi.

So it might be Modi or Rahul at the Centre, as long as there's Banerjee in the state, Bengal has few reasons to worry.