Trinamul Congress mouthpiece Jago Bangla on Saturday published an editorial detailing the stand on national politics, saying the party was not espousing the idea of a non-Congress alliance.

It also took care to send implied reminders on the singular role Mamata Banerjee played in defeating the BJP in Bengal, and that Trinamul and its leadership should be treated with the respect their stature deserves.

The editorial in the Bengali daily, coming two weeks after Mamata’s Delhi visit, is being viewed as an attempt to bring to an end speculation over Mamata’s view of the Congress and its role in a pan-India platform of non-BJP forces ahead of the Lok Sabha polls of 2024.

The crux of the editorial reflects what Mamata had repeatedly stressed during her four-day Delhi trip between July 26 and 30.

“We are certainly not talking about an alliance excluding the Congress. Rather, instead of a third alternative, a direct alternative alliance should be the aim of those in the Opposition this time,” read the piece, a reassertion of Mamata’s call for a united fight against the BJP to make the next general elections “Hope 24”.

Sonia Gandhi PTI

“The Trinamul Congress is in favour of a consolidated alliance. We do not have to furnish new evidence of our good intentions,” added the editorial in the paper, which became a daily from weekly on July 21.

The context, the editorial stated, was rampant speculation and even criticism of Trinamul’s absence from recent political exercises for the national Opposition, convened by the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi. Mamata, during her Delhi trip earlier this month, visited the Congress chief’s residence and met both Sonia and Rahul.

In the editorial, Trinamul stated it was trying to set the record straight, asserting it was in favour of unity of non-BJP, secular, democratic parties for the sake of the nation, but it was unwilling to be slighted or relegated to the role of a sidekick.

Bringing up Mamata’s visit to 10 Janpath, the editorial underscored the party’s anti-BJP credentials inside and outside the Parliament, and said Trinamul would not stand for being casually told over a phone to show up at a rally. Trinamul sources said this happened a few times in the recent past ahead of Opposition events conceived by the Congress.

The editorial was peppered with swipes at the Congress, especially in the context of the part it played in Bengal in the run-up to the key Assembly election, obliquely accusing it of adding fuel to the fire of the BJP’s no-holds-barred offensive on Trinamul in Bengal.

The editorial said how Trinamul, under Mamata’s sole leadership, defeated the BJP while the Congress-Left alliance drew a blank should not be forgotten.

“Unlike in many other states, there was no alliance necessary here (in Bengal). But for the sake of the nation’s interest, we want Opposition unity. Here, Trinamul’s fight, victory, role ought to be remembered,” read the editorial, underscoring the Congress’s lapses in preventing the BJP’s rise nationally and the need to figure out what needs to be done to plug the previous chinks in the alliance armour.

“Trinamul is not thinking about the leadership of the alliance. The priority is to bring to an end the anti-people policies of the BJP,” it added. “Only because the Congress could not fulfil its responsibility nationally was the BJP able to form the government with so many MPs. Had the Congress been able to put up a fight as a suitable alternative, then even in the last Lok Sabha election, the BJP could not have won so many seats.”

The editorial said Trinamul knows how the BJP’s supposedly invincible electoral juggernaut can be brought to a halt and its desire for Opposition unity should not be judged based on its attendance in a programme or two. “… it wants an Opposition alliance, and the All India Trinamul Congress also knows the formula for building it,” it concluded.