To contest or not to contest, is the question for TMC in Kerala
A minor announcement regarding TMC putting up candidates in about 70 seats seems to be now heading for a major showdown within the party between Kerala leadership and the Bengal leaderships.
At the genesis of the fast snowballing controversy is a press conference by Mamata Banerjee in which she had announced TMC’s candidates list for West Bengal. (File/Express)
A big question mark looms large over the Trinamool Congress forays into the Kerala state assembly in this poll season, reports about which have already generated a lot of steam. A minor announcement regarding Trinamool Congress putting up candidates in about 70 seats seems to be now heading for a major showdown within the party between Kerala leadership and the Bengal leaderships.
At the genesis of this fast snowballing controversy is a press conference by Mamata Banerjee in which the TMC chairperson had announced her party’s candidates list for West Bengal in the first week of March. In course of the media meet she had hit out at the “unholy, unprincipled” alliance of the Congress-CPM in the state and highlighted how the two were pitted against each other in Kerala.
She also disclosed that she had plans to visit Kerala and address a number of public rallies to expose what she described as the “two faces of the CPM and the Congress.” “I want to give a message to the people of Kerala against this hypocrisy. I do not know what is the moral behind such a political move,” she had asked. She never clarified whether the Trinamool Congress would contest the polls in Kerala. But in hindsight, it now seems possible that the Kerala TMC leaders look it as a go ahead for the party to contest the assembly polls being held there simultaneously with West Bengal.
TMC party functionaries in Kerala point out that the poll scenario began to unfold quickly with Didi’s cut out being hung in vantage points, with TMC leaders sitting down and compiling the probable candidate list. The Kerala TMC also chalked up several land mark “yognas” – like TMC Gram Swaraji Yogna under which unemployed youths will be given opportunities to earn as much as Rs 30,000 per month. Nearly 500,000 youths were to be covered by the yogana, says TMC Kerala unit leaders.
But then the TMC top leadership in Bengal spooked the news saying that the Trinamool Congress would not contest the Kerala polls. It wanted to consolidate its position at home in Bengal before venturing out in other states.
This has come as a bolt from the blue for the Kerala TMC leadership which is busy pulling all out all the stops to ensure that Didi at least allow them to put up 40-50 candidates. The Kerala leaders said there was such a favourable swing in favour of the Trinamool Congress in the polls that it would have fetched the party no less than 10 MP seats in 2019. Also the CPM and the Congress could have been cut to size.
To back out from the poll scene would be a great loss of face for Mamata Banerjee in Kerala where a work force of over a 3.5 million are engaged in various kinds of jobs. The TMC had been fighting for their shelter, social security and healthcare. “If Didi does not give us permission to fight the polls, we will be facing angry mobs who will attack us and chase us out of Kerala,” said one leader. The party is ready with its list of candidates for the Trinamool Congress central committee to give the go ahead soon in Delhi.
A Kolkata top TMC leader explained that the tremendous urge to be in the poll fray is quite logical and understandable, considering that it always gives avenues for mopping up resources – financial and otherwise. Kerala is no exception. But the Kerala leaders put it into larger perspective:.they say that if the Trinamool Congress does not contest the Kerala polls on the party’s own symbol this time, it will miss out on a golden opportunity to make inroads into a southern state.
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