What’s behind the fall of Bengal’s chosen heir?

For Abhishek Banerjee, everything changed on May 4.

One moment he was the Yuvraj — the prince — of Bengal, its Senapati, a suave 39-year-old tipped to succeed his aunt, Mamata Banerjee.

The next, he was battling trouble from all quarters: party workers hurling eggs, the Enforcement Directorate grilling him, the CID questioning him as well, and, to top it all, no one around to watch his back.Most of his old colleagues, who had until the other day beamed at him and extolled the virtues of his ‘Diamond Harbour Model’, were now blaming him for the party’s disastrous performance in the assembly polls.

If you were looking for a fall guy, you could hardly do better than Abhishek; he ticked all the boxes.