Countdown begins

The political map of West Bengal has changed over the past one year as it had not for three decades. In another years time,more change is anticipated,culminating in a change of guard at Writers Building in Kolkata. But none of that is a given; and while the ruling Left Front may safely be called a lame duck administration,the anti-Left opposition is nowhere home yet. That uncertainty rests on three facts: first,the Congress-Trinamool alliance fell apart over seat-sharing before the municipal polls in May; second,without the Congress,Mamata Banerjees party is still unlikely to wrest Bengal from the Left; third,the Bengal Congress,within the state and without,is not given much chance of counting as a fully fledged second opposition force.

Thus,news that Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has quit the post of state Congress president and that the leader of the Congress in the assembly,Manas Bhunia,has been appointed WBPCC chief must be interpreted as the party paying attention to the practical details of internal management,alliance negotiations and electoral positioning in view of next years assembly election. An overburdened Mukherjee had not only desired for long to let go of the WBPCC leadership,but the Congress perhaps needed a state leader entrenched in the states politics,who,without the stature and responsibilities of Mukherjee,could deal with the Trinamool on the spot and less conspicuously.

The Bengal Congresss problem is twofold: the erosion of its stature and organisation; and,

unwavering public perception of the same. After the municipal polls the party contested on its own,it was written off once more. However,as has been argued in this column,it is not so bleak for the Congress it held on to most of its North Bengal bastions and improved its performances elsewhere. Any alternative political space in Bengal will necessarily be in opposition to the Left. The

Trinamool grew at the expense of both the Left and the Congress. As the party that was there before every other,the Congress can still use the run-up to the assembly polls to expand its hold on the anti-Left space and discourse.