Congress, Trinamool Congress go separate ways

The Congress-Trinamool honeymoon seems to be virtually over. Both the parties have decided to contest independently for the upcoming polls in 81 civic bodies in West Bengal, including the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), considered to be a dress rehearsal for the 2011 state assembly elections.

The development comes as a cheer for the Left Front, who now hope to regain the traditional advantage of division in opposition votes, the lack of which gave them a tremendous jolt in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Even the All India Congress Committee (AICC) high-command at New Delhi, which was always sympathetic to the Trinamool supremo and railways ministers, Mamata Banerjee so far, has this time around, given a free hand to West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) to settle the sharing
affair on “respectable terms”.

The main contention was over KMC’s seat sharing, where Mamata was unwilling to offer 25 more wards to Congress against the latter’s plea for at least 40. The total number of KMC wards stand at 141.

On Wednesday night, Trinamool MLA, Partho Chatterjee, unilaterally announced candidates for 116 KMC wards, leaving only 25 for Congress, which Congress could not succumb. After a series of discussions, finally on Sunday, Congress announced their candidates for 88 KMC wards, who will contest against both Trinamool and Left Front.

Congress’ decision immediately sealed the fate of alliance for the remaining 80 civic bodies in West Bengal, which are also going for polls with KMC in May 2010. Irked by Congress’s announcement, Mamata immediately issued a strongly-worded instruction to Trinamool leaders to get ready to fight independently for all the 81 civic bodies and field candidates for each and every seat.

The AICC general secretary in charge of West Bengal, Keshav Rao, squarely blamed Trinamool for this unfortunate development. “In the midst of bilateral discussion, they unilaterally announced their candidate list. This was not done. However, I am hopeful that this will not have any impact on the overall alliance,” Rao said.

WBPCC spokesman, Nirbed Roy said that Congress was flexible as far as possible. “From our original demand for 51 seats, we climbed down to 40. But there was total inflexibility on Trinamool’s part. It is unfortunate. But we had no option. Had we totally succumbed, it would have affected the morale of Congress workers and the existence of the party in the state,” Roy said.

Admitting that the honeymoon period with Trinamool is over, he said, “Now it is the phase of serious joint family functioning, where such tussles are inevitable,” Roy said.

Will this tussle turn out into a divorce? To this question, Roy said, “I do not think so. But even if the divorce happens it would be unilateral and not on our part.”

The Trinamool leadership, however, blamed Congress’s lack of understanding about reality that resulted in the development. Admitting that Trinamool alone was calling the shots in the civic polls, a party spokesman said that they did the groundwork and won in the Lok Sabha polls. “Obviously, there will be a tendency to put pressure on the Congress,” he said.

However, Trinamool does not feel that that this development will have any impact on alliance for the 2011 state assembly elections. “It is wrong that AICC or Congress president, Sonia Gandhi is unhappy with Trinamool. At the upper level, the alliance is intact and sound,” the Trinamool spokesman said.

Now speculations are rife in the state political circle on whether this development would once again prompt Mamata to quit railway ministry, as she did in 2001 from the Atal Behari Vajpayee- led NDA government.

Chances are slim that she will repeat the blunder, feel political analysts. “As railways minister, she has the opportunity to woo the public by announcing new projects. If she quits she will lose that opportunity. I do not think she will take this chance at such a crucial period,” a senior political analyst here said.