Chink in Opp unity: Bengal Congress wants to partner with Left, says TMC has ‘tacit understanding’ with BJP

1999 was a seminal moment in Bengal politics, when a young fiery Congress leader named Mamata Banerjee left the party to form the TMC.  Since then the West Bengal Chief Minister has become one of the most dominant politicians in India, and one of the few to convincingly keep the BJP’s juggernaut at bay in her own turf.

Now, she’s one of the most-watched politicians ahead of the 2019 Elections with talks underway for a united Opposition to take on the Modi-Shah juggernaut. However, forming an alliance across the country, particularly when most parties in Indian polity have evolved due to their anti-Congress stance is easier said than done.

Trouble has already started brewing in Bengal, where the state Congress has sent a report to the AICC proposing a 21-step approach to defeat the ‘TMC-BJP’ nexus in the state, including an alliance with Left parties and a proposal to even share office space with the communists.

Even as Mamata Banerjee is seen sharing the space with Congress and other Opposition leaders in Bengaluru during Kumaraswamy’s oath ceremony, the state’s Congress remains antagonistic to the idea of going at it with TMC.

West Bengal Congress secretary OP Mishra told Indian Express: “We have sent the report to New Delhi and are awaiting a response. The main thrust of the report is to not only look at the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but draw a long-term plan to see how we can make a recovery in the 2021 assembly elections, defeat the TMC and come to power. We are not averse to forming a coalition government with the CPM in the state.’’

The state of Congress in Bengal is a tad direr in the rest of the country and both Congress and the Left are fast losing the Opposition space to BJP in the state.

The report wants central office points in Kolkata, Asansol, Behrampore and Siliguri, a website, social media pages, and a 50,000 strong volunteer force.

The report further states: “The methodology may involve enlisting the support of 1,000 core political party activists distributed throughout the state, encouraging each of them to enlist 10 volunteers and then subsequently each of the 10,000 volunteers to help enlist 5 volunteers each. The volunteers may be supporters or sympathizers of any political party. Details related to enlisting and joining of volunteers and Dos and Don’ts related to them to be prepared in writing.”

The report further claimed there is a tacit understanding between TMC and BJP in Bengal and that that a TMC-Congress-Left tie-up would serve the BJP and they could end up ‘ceding the Opposition space to BJP’.

The report claims: “When Congress and Left political parties reached state-level electoral understanding and contested the 2016 assembly election, securing about 39 per cent vote share, BJP’s vote share was reduced by about 40 per cent, from the high of 17.2 to 10.5 per cent. The 6 per cent gap between TMC and Congress-Left combine resulted in a huge victory for TMC which secured 211 seats. TMC leadership realized that any further strengthening of Congress-Left combine would jeopardize their electoral success and hence decided to encourage BJP’s ‘rise’.”

The report further argues that the TMC has given ‘tacit and indirect support to BJP’.

Recently, Mamata Banerjee caused a war of words when she called BJP a ‘militant organisation’.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the BJP a "militant organisation," and alleged that it is engaged in dividing the people along religious lines, while daring it to attack her party.

Banerjee, a known critic of the saffron party, also accused the BJP of manipulating EVMs to increase its vote share in the state and urged Trinamool Congress workers to prepare for the next Lok Sabha elections as the entire country is looking forward to it.

"We are not a militant organisation like the BJP. They are arrogant and intolerant. They are religiously biased. They don't like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs - they are even differentiating between the upper caste and the lower caste Hindus," she said at the extended core committee meeting of the TMC.

Lashing out at the BJP, she said, "They are threatening to carry out encounters. Just because they are in power in Delhi, they are talking about hurling bombs. I dare them to come and touch us. We will show them their place." The BJP state unit hit back saying "the people of Bengal know which party has resorted to terror tactics in the last panchayat polls".