Cracks in the alliance between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress,uneasy enough when it began,have become starker than ever with local Congress leaders contemplating going solo in the panchayat elections. Till a few weeks ago,the Congresss allegations against the Trinamool had largely been about poaching by the dominant partner. Now Congress leaders allege violence,too,citing a number of attacks that they say are aimed at establishing the Trinamool Congresss dominance. This week,a delegation of Congress leaders met Rahul Gandhi to stress that they contest the panchayat elections without an alliance. Ten district presidents and a number of MLAs were in the delegation that said the interests of the Congress are under threat. On July 28,student workers clashed over control of a college in West Midnapore,leaving eight injured on both sides,after which Trinamool Chhatra Parishad members allegedly ransacked a Congress office and beat up Congress members,leading to a police lathicharge. A month later,Islampur College Raigunj was shut down indefinitely following weeks of violence that had seen two Congress-backed students injured,allegedly by those backed by the Trinamool Congress. Beyond the campus,a Congress office was ransacked this month in Swaroopnagar,North 24-Parganas,with three of the eight injured still admitted to RG Kar Medical College. There has been violence,some of it campus-related,also in Canning in South 24-Parganas,Ghatal in East Midnapore,and Howrah districts Udaynaryanpur and Bagnan. My perception is that they want the Congress to become a signboard. people taking up (the Congress cause) are scared now because of the political violence, said Deepa Das Munshi,Congress MP. The first signs of discontent surfaced within a month after the cabinet had been sworn in,with the Congresss Parliamentary Affairs Minister Manoj Chakrabarti offering to quit as he was not given much importance in the functioning of my department. Though the party leadership persuaded him to stay,Chakrabarti continues to grumble. Weeks later,the exodus began. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy,a Congress leader close to Pranab Mukherjee,was among the first of those to defect and is now a Rajya Sabha MP from the Trinamool. Congress student wing president Sourav Chakraborty,meanwhile,was given the equivalent post in the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad. Those who followed included leaders who had been disciplined by the Congress ironically for having contested the elections against the Trinamool alliance. Ram Pyare Ram,for instance,had been suspended from the Congress for such a rebellion,yet the Trinamool took him in. As a result,the Congress leadership has decided to drop proceedings against such leaders. If the Trinamool can keep those suspended for contesting against its candidates,said AICC-in-charge of West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed,why cant we? Over a dozen rebels would be re-inducted,he said. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,Congress MP,said the Trinamool is luring Congress workers with plum posts. Their objective is to weaken the Congress organisationally. When the violence followed,state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee on targeted attacks on Congress leaders. After the election,there have been 61 incidents of Trinamool Congress activists attacking Congress workers and party offices, he said. Mamata later dismissed these as false allegations. Deepa Das Munshi too cited 61 attacks while Mausam Benajir Noor,MP and Youth Congress president,said the Congress will have to go out on streets if the violence does not stop. There has also been one-upmanship between the two parties,which depend on the same votebank. The Youth Congress launched a drive spearheaded by Rahul Gandhi in September last year; the Trinamool launched its youth wing this year. Some Congress leaders even accuse the Trinamool of blocking development,particularly projects from which the Congress would have benefited politically. Das Munshi alleged that the Trinamool is not interested in accquiring 100 acres for a multi-specialty hospital at Raiganj,her constituency,though the Centre has cleared the Rs-823-crore project,to be modelled on AIIMS. There is no trust,no coordination between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, Das Munshi said.
