Regional parties and governments have more often than not governed with a strong progressive streak in various state capitals across the country. The Left Front government in West Bengal of the 1970s and 80s dismantled medieval structures and policies holding back land reforms and put power back in the hands of the farmers. The populism of AIADMK-TDP governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh of the same era was reviled and criticised till the socio-economic change that it spawned and the political loyalty it commanded forced other governments to follow suit with similar programmes.Sadly, regional parties are anything but progressive now except for TDP under Chandrababu Naidu. The AIADMK Shiv Sena , the Left Front have fallen on hard times have troubled holding on to their base in face of a determined onslaught by their rivals. The leaders who held the party together in the 1980s and 1990s and brought them to national prominence have passed away and the second generation is no longer capable of commanding the same loyalty and support.The less said about TMC’s Mamata Banerjee the better. She was single-handedly responsible for ridding Bengal of the scourge of communism in 2011 but seems to have now fallen prey to that old, devious temptation that has ensnared all supposedly secular politicians in the country: Minority appeasement. Didi knows she can't win Bengal without the Muslim vote which is about 27% of the electorate. She also knows that other parties, especially the Congress and Left are assiduously wooing them so she has to double up her efforts to retain her base. This is leading her to make some silly mistakes. Mistakes she can do without and which may come back to haunt her if not in 2019 then at least in 2021.The Calcutta high court’s stinging rebuke last week on the Durga idol immersion may have left her unfazed given the directions soon issued to pandal committees that they need to seek police permission before taking out any processions. But this is precisely the problem with Didi. Her anger at being denied is forcing her to lash out in unpredictable ways and this may be detrimental to her party’s electoral prospects. Maybe she realises it and doesn't care, but she is slowly but surely laying the groundwork for a massive Hindu consolidation in parts of Bengal. A consolidation which could undermine her grip in power and lead to the emergence of the BJP as a robust alternative if not the outright winner in the coming electoral battles.The problem with Didi’s politics is that the controversies around minority appeasement are only growing day by day. They are not coming down. Durga immersion, her voluble support for Rohingya refugees and silence on the Triple Talaq issue, the various minor communal skirmishes and major incidents across the state in the past three years and the doles and favouritism shown to minority groups and institutions are not going unnoticed. The BJP, the RSS and their sister organisations have been laying the groundwork for a rightist resurgence in Bengal and Didi’s reckless behaviour and grandstanding in favour of minorities will only help their cause.Today, the BJP is leaderless and lacks a committed, dedicated cadre like the TMC in the state. But what it has is set of emotional issues which it can use to generate public momentum against Didi. One of the most underrated, underreported stories of elections of the past few years has been the massive consolidation of Hindu votes behind the BJP. We saw it in 2014 in select states and we saw it again in UP in 2017. It is a big phenomenon and it has been engineered by BJP with support from sister organisations. BJP leader Amit Shah’s directive to state unit to generate at least 15 million votes for the party in coming elections is not an idle boast. The man knows what he is doing. He has perfected this formula in past elections and knows that a carefully orchestrated campaign combining issues like corruption, misgovernance and a generous dose of Hindutva will help the party secure victory. Didi better watch out. Her shrill rhetoric may be laying the groundwork for a BJP win in the state soon.