Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
Kolkata, Jan 6 (IANS) Since the beginning of the New Year, there are indications of the unity within the Opposition INDIA Bloc in West Bengal being under threat each passing day.
While any kind of understanding between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its arch rival the CPI(M)-led Left Front was always out of the question in the state, there was some speculation about a possible Congress-Trinamool Congress concord.
However, this too was possible only if the Congress high command overruled the objections of the majority of its state leadership to any alliance with the ruling party in West Bengal.
According to the latest information, the Congress high command is keeping the door open for dialogues with both, the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress, till the very end.
However, during the last ten days there have been enough indications from the top leaders of the Trinamool Congress and the state unit of the Congress that a three-cornered contest between the ruling party, the BJP and the Congress-Left Front alliance is a big possibility.
Significantly, both the Congress and CPI(M) have taken the preliminary decision not to contest from the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency in South 24 Parganas district and allow All-India Secular Front (AISF) representative Naushad Siddique to stand from there.
The move, according to political observers, will undoubtedly put Diamond Harbour’s current Lok Sabha member and Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a fix.
This is because of the twin factors of a sizeable minority population in that constituency that is enough to determine the fate of the candidates there and the skyrocketing popularity of Siddique among the Muslim voters, especially among the youth.
Observers say that in case of a triangular contest between the Trinamool Congress, BJP and AISF in Diamond Harbour, the sitting MP from there will to a great extent restrict himself to that constituency rather than concentrating on campaigning for the party in the entire state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself sowed the seeds of discord when she gave a hint that while the INDIA Bloc will prevail at the national level, in the case of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress would take on the BJP alone.
“Let the INDIA Bloc be there nationally, but in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress will put up the fight. Remember, in West Bengal only Trinamool Congress can teach the BJP a lesson. The Trinamool Congress can show the path to the entire country from West Bengal. No other party is capable of doing that,” Mamata Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister’s observation was the trigger for state Congress President and five-time Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to reiterate his old logic against any kind of compromise with the Trinamool Congress.
Chowdhury said that factionalism and corruption have led the state’s ruling party to the final stage of cancer. On Thursday evening he virtually closed all the doors on behalf of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) for any alliance with the Trinamool Congress by directly challenging Mamata Banerjee to contest against him in the Lok Sabha polls this year.
He also described the Trinamool Congress’ demands for seats in Assam, Meghalaya and Goa, as against just two seats for the grand old party in West Bengal as absurd propositions, particularly as the two seats already have sitting Congress MPs.
In no time, the CPI(M)’s central committee member Sujan Chakraborty expressed solidarity with Chowdhury on the issue.
“Although I should not speak about an internal policy matter of the Congress, I still want to say that the kind of political and administrative wrath that the Congress has been subjected to in West Bengal during the current Trinamool Congress regime, such a reaction from the state Congress President is quite natural,” Chakraborty said.
Political observers say that although everything is possible in politics, as of now it is quite evident that the concept of INDIA Bloc will be restricted to the Congress-Left Front and not the Congress-Trinamool Congress combine.
