CALCUTTA, January 20: Expectedly she is drawing large crowds wherever she is going on the first leg of her campaign in West Bengal districts. But Mamata Banerjee has kept both her supporters and rivals guessing on two counts: on her equations, present and future, with Sonia Gandhi; and on how far she is prepared to collaborate with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.Although her Trinamul Congress has hit the campaign ground ahead of the Congress and in some places, even the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), confusion trails her. Speculations about her equations with Sonia surfaced again when former Congress MP and now her camp follower, Mani Shankar Aiyar, left for Bhubaneswar where Sonia addressed a Congress election meeting today. Before leaving, he had a long meeting with Mamata.Mamata had been put in a spot by Sonia's decision to plunge into the Congress campaign after her expulsion from the party. Only a few days before that, she had met Sonia in Delhi and pleaded with her to lead the campaign.Mamata was addressing her first poll meeting in Calcutta when the announcement about Sonia came. She felt let down and expressed her anger to party colleagues. In one newspaper interview soon after, she even called Sonia a "political opportunist".But the Trinamul leader seems to have changed track in the past few days. She not only denies having called Sonia an opportunist, but also keeps reiterating her loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family. Mamata has gone on record saying she is prepared to talk to Sonia if the latter so desires.At the same time, Mamata dismisses all speculation about the possibility of her return to the Congress, saying this would not happen till the present Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) - which she calls "the CPM's B team" - is in saddle.However, while her supporters share her anger at the PCC, they are not as convinced that she would not return to the party after the polls under a changed arrangement. And, Mamata has repeatedly made clear what such an arrangement could be - the disbanding of the present PCC and her appointment as the party's State unit in-charge.This is also something many BJP leaders in the State suspect. Her contradictory statements on her party's understanding with the BJP have caused much confusion among workers and supporters.
