Mamata Banerjee, Rahul Gandhi bonhomie in Bengaluru puts Bengal Cong in a spot as Oppn unity hits bumps

Although the TMC swept the rural polls, but its outcome indicated that a section of minority voters – who play a crucial role in many seats at various levels across the state – has supported the alliance of the Congress, CPI(M)-led Left and the Indian Secular Front (ISF), thereby boosting their fight against the ruling party. Mamata might be looking to stem this perceived erosion of the TMC’s minority vote base by getting the Congress on board.

Earlier, the TMC leadership and its mouthpiece “Jago Bangla” used to target the Congress and Rahul Gandhi regularly.

After the 2021 Assembly polls, in which the Left and the Congress were decimated as their tallies plummeted to zero seats, Mamata took over as the CM for the third consecutive term. While hailing Mamata as “the most accepted Opposition face”, the TMC organ had then stated: “The TMC has been saying that the Congress has failed, the UPA has ended. We need an Opposition coalition… The Congress is the biggest Opposition party, but it is sealed in the deep freezer. Their leadership is closeted inside a room and is only seen on Twitter… The country needs a coalition of Opposition forces. Opposition party leaders gave that responsibility to TMC leader (Mamata)… All Opposition forces are now looking towards her.”

In the August 2022 Vice-Presidential election, the TMC had sought to underline that it would not play second fiddle to the Congress and had refused to rally behind the Opposition’s V-P candidate Margaret Alva while claiming that the Congress had picked her “unilaterally”. This was after the Opposition, including the Congress, had jointly backed Yashwant Sinha, a TMC pick, as their Presidential candidate.

The relationship between the Congress and the TMC had hit a new low during the February 2023 Meghalaya Assembly elections in which both were in contention. In November 2021, the TMC had made a dramatic entry in Meghalaya politics when 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs, led by ex-CM Mukul Sangma, defected to its fold. The TMC, which did not have any base in Meghalaya till then, thus became the principal Opposition there overnight.

Campaigning for the Meghalaya polls, Rahul had told a rally in Shillong: “You know the history of the TMC. You know the violence that takes place in Bengal. You know the scams, the Saradha scam that has taken place. You are aware of their tradition. They (TMC) came to Goa and spent huge amounts of money in Goa. The idea was to help the BJP. This is exactly the idea in Meghalaya. The TMC’s idea in Meghalaya is to ensure that the BJP is strengthened and wins.”

Hitting back at Rahul then, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew, had tweeted: “@INCIndia has failed to resist @BJP4India. Thr irrelevance, incompetence & insecurity has put them in a state of delirium. I urge @RahulGandhi to revisit thr politics of vanity instead of attacking us. Our growth isn’t driven by money, it is people’s love that propels us.”

Abhishek had also stated, “By the same logic, when Congress contested 92 seats in Bengal Elections in 2021, was their idea to help the BJP? Rahul Gandhi’s statements against @AITCofficial is pretty rich, especially coming from a party that has lost 40 out of the last 45 Assembly Elections in India.”

During her campaign in Meghalaya, Mamata had also criticised the Congress, saying, “Congress is seeking votes, do they have moral rights?”

Jago Bangla had then joined in, stating that “During the Bengal Assembly elections the Congress worked as a B-team of BJP. Now, Left, Congress and BJP have openly joined hands.”

In February, when the Congress won the Sagardighi Assembly seat bypoll in Bengal by defeating the TMC candidate, Mamata was enraged. She said: “In 2024, we will see an alliance between the Trinamool and the people. We will not go with any of the other political parties. We will fight alone with people’s support. Those who want to defeat the BJP, I believe they will vote for us. The ones voting for the CPI(M) and Congress are actually voting for the BJP.”

In March, however, after Rahul’s disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP following his conviction and sentencing over his 2019 Modi surname remark, the equation between the two parties again started improving. Addressing a rally of the TMC’s student and youth wing in Kolkata then, Abhishek said if Rahul could face conviction and disqualification over a remark made at a poll rally, why should PM Modi not be charged for “hurting the sentiments of women in West Bengal” by his taunt of “Didi o Didi!” for Mamata during the 2021 polls. “If Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified for his comments as per the law, why shouldn’t the same happen for PM Modi and Suvendu Adhikari (Leader of Opposition)?”

In March, during her 30-hour sit-in demonstration against the Narendra Modi government’s alleged “raw deal” to the state, Mamata, in her speeches, highlighted the importance of Opposition unity in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Following the Congress’s resounding win in Karnataka, a further warmth in the Mamata-Congress relations was seen.

A senior TMC leader had also said, “Our key concern is the minority votes, which was solely garnered by our party in the 2021 polls. If this votebank shifts to Congress we will be defeated in many areas. That is the main concern of our leadership. So our shifting stand towards Congress reflects this reality. We studied that if Congress will support us in coming Lok Sabha election, we will grab more than 35 seats in Bengal but if not then, TMC alone would win around 25 seats.”

Meanwhile, at the Bengaluru meet, Mamata’s bonhomie with the Congress top brass, especially Rahul Gandhi – whom she described as “our favourite” – seems to have stunned Bengal Congress leaders.

Seizing on the “dilemma” in the Congress and Left camps in the state in the wake of the Bengaluru conclave, Suvendu Adhikari said, “Those who want to fight against this (TMC) government, come and fight with Bharatiya Janata Party. Or create a platform where you can stand and fight all out against the tyrannical state government. No vote to Mamata – You can say this slogan with open mind. If you want to fight against this state government standing under the pictures of the leaders who attended the alliance meeting, the people of West Bengal will not believe you. This fight would practically become a catchline, ‘Dosti (friendship) in Delhi and wrestling in Bengal’.”

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has already said, “This co-operation only works at the state level. So the parties concerned at the state level should now start discussions on what electoral arrangement is possible in order to make sure maximisation of anti-BJP stand so that BJP cannot take advantage of division of anti-BJP forces. Obviously this decision will be taken at the state level.”

Reflecting the state Congress’s concern on the issue – and the challenge the party leadership would face if it strikes a seat-sharing deal with the TMC – a party leader Koustav Bagchi said, “We are not going to accept any alliance with TMC. It’s because of TMC that 8 Congress workers were killed.”

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, “Whatever happened in Bengaluru, Bengal politics has no relation with that. We are again and again saying that. TMC looted and rigged the panchayat election and played with blood. Our central leadership never said, ‘Praise TMC’. BJP should not be worried. We will continue our fight.”

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrborty said, “We are fighting against both BJP and TMC and that fight in West Bengal will go on. No question of alliance with TMC.”