She played hardball with the government..

Mamta Banerjee played hardball with the government for four years before exiting it

English communication is a must have skill for everyone of us in the current times. The right way to continuously build your English communication skills is to keep learning new stuff everyday.

In this post, we discuss the phrase, play hardball.

Playing hardball means being tough, being unrelenting, trying to drive a hard bargain. It could also mean being aggressive with something or someone or pursuing your goals with great intensity.

Let’s check out some examples:

1. Mulayam Singh has announced to support the government but he will play hardball with the ruling party.
2. Manish is playing hardball with the investors because he knows his company is growing and has everything that would make it an investors darling.
3. The company is playing hardball with the suppliers. It has held back their payments and is also delaying renewing the contract. It seems they have some quality issues.

You play hardball with someone when you want to extract the maximum mileage out of them and are willing to be extra tough and aggressive with them.

Let’s close with some more examples:

1. Mamta played hardball with the government for four years and extracted maximum concessions whenever she could. However, on the question of FDI, the government called her bluff and she was left with no option but to exit the government.
2. He is playing hardball with the property dealer. He knows that since he is booking three flats in one go, he can drive down the prices and have a good bargain.
3. The protesters are playing hardball with the government now that they have seen the amount of public support they enjoy. They are not going to relent before the government agrees to at least their major demands.
4. He is playing hardball with his boss over salary and bonus because he has four offers in hand.