Friday, 20 December 2024
Friday, 20 December 2024
Lalu Prasad on Tuesday joined the chorus for Mamata Banerjee to head the Opposition bloc, the INDI Alliance, stirring afresh a pot that most thought had been settled with the Congress emerging the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha election.
“Mamata Banerjee should be allowed to head the INDIA bloc,” the former Bihar chief minister said, overruling objections, if any, from the Congress on the issue of having to take a backseat on the fight with the BJP.
A day before, Sharad Pawar had lent his support, calling Mamata a “capable leader.” Pawar said: “She is a capable leader in the country and has the right to say it. The MPs she has sent to the Parliament are hardworking and aware.”
Lalu’s comment also stood out because a day before, his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had seemed to strike a different note when he underlined the “need to sit together and take a collective decision on choosing a leader”.
As these Opposition leaders speak, there is seemingly a churn in Bengal as well.
A day before Lalu spoke up, Mamata decided to put the past behind and went to the Raj Bhawan in Calcutta, accepting an invite from the Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose.
A chief minister meeting the governor should be a routine event, but this was not. It was Mamata’s first visit to the Raj Bhawan since August, when following protocol she had attended an event on the eve of Independence day.
Since she took oath as the chief minister nearly 14 years ago, Mamata’s ties with the occupants of Raj Bhawan has often been acrimonious and hostile. The ties have worsened and the frequency of the altercations increased as Mamata’s grip on the politics of Bengal tightened, specially after her victory in the 2021 Assembly polls.
This summer, the CM-governor ties hit rock bottom as Bose was accused of molestation by a former employee of the Raj Bhawan. So much so, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, Mamata had called for the governor to step down and announced it was a “sin” to sit with him.
This July, two debut MLAs from the Trinamul, Sayantika Bandyopadhyaya and Rayat Hossain Sarkar, had sat on a dharna demanding they be allowed to take oath in Assembly and not the Raj Bhawan.
In September, Bose had announced a “social boycott” of the chief minister while the protests over the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital raged across the state.
Last week, the same governor conducted the oath-taking ceremony of six new MLAs – all from the Trinamul – without a word of protest from any corner.
A cryptic post also appeared on the Raj Bhawan’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle: “The real friendship is like fluorescence, it shines better when everything has darkened. Even though we may be parted, we remain connected like the branches of a tree that stretch towards each other.”
Indication of the softening of ties between the two is not restricted to the visit alone.
The governor is also reported to have cleared the appointment of six vice-chancellors to different universities of the state, which was one of the main reasons of conflict between the two leaders.
A majority of the files related to the appointment of vice-chancellors, including that of Calcutta University, however, are still pending.
While Raj Bhawan and Mamata might appearing to be inching closer, within the fractious national Opposition alliance, the cracks appear to be widening.
Losses in the back-to-back Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra, states where the Congress had gained ground in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, have once again exposed the chasms with the INDIA bloc.
Last week, in an interaction with a Bengali channel, Mamata had stated that she was open to taking the lead in the Opposition alliance if given a chance.
“I had formed the INDIA bloc, now it is up to those leading the front to manage it,” she had said. “If they can’t run the show, what can I do? I would just say that everyone needs to be taken along.
“If given the opportunity I would ensure its smooth functioning. I don’t want to go outside West Bengal, but I can run it from here,” she had added.
Before the Lok Sabha polls, Mamata had questioned whether the Congress could even bag 50 seats across the country. The grand old party, for the first time in 10 years, stopped at one short of reaching the three-figure mark in the Lok Sabha.
While the Congress leaders admit that Mamata at present is invincible in Bengal like M.K. Stalin in Tamil Nadu, they point out neither of these two leaders and their parties have any presence in electorally crucial north India.
Although the Congress top brass is silent on the rumbles within the alliance partners, it has not stopped the party leaders from speaking if they want to.
“Can the SP and the RJD take on the BJP without the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with around 120 Lok Sabha seats in the two states? Is Mamata Banerjee a factor in UP or Bihar?” asked a Bengal Congress leader who requested anonymity.
Responding to a post from YSR Congress leader V. Vijaysai Reddy claiming Mamata is “the ideal candidate” to lead the Opposition alliance, Congress MP Manickam Tagore described the alliance partners as the BJP’s B-team.
“All of Modi’s B-teams share the same agenda as Modi and Adani. Why?” the MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar wondered.
At the onset of the Winter session of the Parliament, the Trinamul had refused to participate with the Congress on the Adani issue, following the indictment of the industrialist by the US department of justice, though one of its own MPs, Mahua Moitra, one of the most vocal leaders on Adani, was expelled a year ago from the Lok Sabha.
In the Opposition’s ongoing protests on the Adani issue in Parliament, the Trinamul’s absence has been glaring.
“Narendra Modi and the BJP will be the happiest if INDIA [bloc] and the Congress weaken,” said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Bengal Congress president.
“Rahul Gandhi is their enemy number one. Everything else pales before Adani acting as bridge [between Mamata and Modi],” he said.
“I am curious to know what brought about the thaw between the chief minister and the governor. I would like to know what changed now that the two have become such good friends,” he added.
