Didi load sheddings, forget don blackouts

Don-Don't Trump has, last heard, held back from bombing Iran's power stations if Tehran doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz in the next five stock marketable days. But in another theatre of war, Did-Didi Banerjee has warned her MAA-go supporters to keep their eyes peeled. BJP, she insists, will try to orchestrate 'deliberate load shedding' in West Bengal's voting booths next month. For millennials unfamiliar with the term, 'load shedding' refers to suspension of electricity supply to avoid excessive load on a generating plant, a practice so familiar to Kolkatans during the 70s-80s, that it remains a cultural phenomenon nostalgists in air-conditioned rooms still fondly reminisce about today.

At a Bhawanipur campaign rally last Sunday - a constituency where she will be, once again, meeting her BJP bete noire Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated her at Nandigram in 2021 by, according to Did-Didi, turning the lights off - Banerjee warned TMC workers not to leave for home immediately after voting ends. Because BJP workers will be ready to trigger a power outage allowing them to tamper with EVMs in the darkness. BJP may not yet show Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps qualities like Did-Didi credits it with. But as far as threat perceptions go, she's right up there with Pete Hegseth and Don-Don't in shedding light on perceived deliberate darkening forces.