Mamata Banerjee has said the Trinamul Congress has no problem supporting the Congress in the next general election at places where the latter is the strongest force against the BJP, but the Grand Old Party should do its bit to ensure a level playing field for regional bigwigs in their respective areas.
“Wherever the Congress is the strongest force, I think that would be in around 200 (Lok Sabha) seats or something, let them fight (directly against the BJP). We would support them, and there is nothing wrong. But they (the Congress) have to support the other political parties also (where they are the strongest anti-BJP force),” the Bengal chief minister said during a news conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Monday.
“Yes, a level playing field is the need of the hour, to save the country, to save (its) democracy,” she added.
Till the Narendra Modi government's manoeuvres to have Rahul Gandhi disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, the Trinamul chairperson had been pitching a strategy of equidistance from the BJP and the Congress. After Rahul's disqualification, Mamata has been mellow in her approach to the Congress.
The comments on Monday came in response to questions against the backdrop of her apparently non-committal stand on Saturday following the Congress's victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections. On Saturday, Mamata saluted the people of Karnataka for their mandate for “change” and also the “winners”, but didn’t name the Congress or Rahul.
On Monday, in an apparent bid to explain her stand, she referred to the approach of the Bengal unit of the Congress to Trinamul and its caustic attacks on her.
“I extended my support to the Congress in Karnataka. While I am supporting you there, you are fighting against me every day (here). That should not be the policy. If you want good things from someone, you have to sacrifice something, too,” said Mamata.
Several senior Trinamul insiders said Mamata was upset with the approach of the state Congress, which virtually echoes the BJP and the CPM to counter Trinamul.
The Congress’s state chief, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, for instance, could not resist the urge to attack Mamata and Trinamul while celebrating his party’s win in Karnataka. Chowdhury, also the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha, said Trinamul would evaporate from the political picture of anti-BJP forces and the Congress would emerge as the only alternative, even in Bengal.
“Didi (Mamata) has rightly said that the Congress should support her party in Bengal for a democratic way of forming a common anti-BJP platform. How can we keep supporting the Congress elsewhere, if its leaders like Adhir Chowdhury keep playing the role of a BJP B-team here?” asked a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta.
Mamata, however, said the broad contours of a united Opposition against the BJP in 2024 were yet to be finalised and the issues would be resolved during meetings among the non-BJP parties if such an alliance took shape.
She also gave examples of states where regional parties should get the priority to fight against the BJP on a 1:1 basis.
“Suppose in the case of Bengal, we (Trinamul) should fight (against the BJP). In that way, the AAP should fight in Delhi. In Bihar, (JDU chief) Nitish (Kumar), (RJD leader) Tejashwi (Yadav), and the Congress can fight together,” said Mamata, adding examples of Punjab, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand to the list.
The chief minister is firmly in favour of the 1:1 formula, which translates into a single non-BJP candidate being fielded against the BJP in as many of the 543 Lok Sabha seats as possible.
The Trinamul chief has been pitching the 1:1 formula for a while, questioning the BJP’s very ability to win the polls next year, dismissing the meticulously crafted and religiously protected perception of the invincibility of the Modi regime. She takes the example of 11 states — accounting for 271 Lok Sabha seats — where the BJP, according to her, is unlikely to fare well.
Since the middle of March, Mamata has held parleys with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, JDU chief Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. She had telephone discussions with DMK chief M.K. Stalin, JMM leader Hemant Soren and BRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao.
NITI Aayog meeting
The chief minister on Monday confirmed her participation in the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi on May 28, while underscoring the “futility” of the exercise and the ineffectiveness of the platform.
Mamata said she would go there, nonetheless, because she wanted to voice the demands of the state.
