Mamata Banerjee has raced off the blocks to offer to work “wholeheartedly” with several like-minded parties for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attacks on democracy and the Constitution.

“We can win this battle only with unity of hearts and minds, and by presenting a credible alternative to the people of India. After the conclusion of the ongoing Assembly elections, I suggest that we deliberate on these issues and chart a plan of action,” Mamata said in a letter to a host of non-BJP parties.

Mamata’s letter, dated March 28, has been sent to Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, M.K. Stalin, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Jagan Reddy and Arvind Kejriwal.

The Bengal chief minister has written to Sonia although the Congress, in alliance with the Left, is fighting the Trinamul Congress in Bengal. However, Mamata did not send the letter to the CPM.

She chose to send the letter to CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, whose party had differed with the Left Front on the issue of identifying BJP as the “main enemy” in the ongoing Assembly polls.

“…I strongly believe that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attacks on democracy and the Constitution. As the Chairperson of All India Trinamul Congress, I shall work wholeheartedly with you and all other like-minded political parties in this battle,” Mamata wrote in the letter.

The chief minister has made the first move without waiting for the Assembly results, prompting some to suggest that she has realised first hand the peril of letting the BJP go unchallenged. Others felt that Mamata was positioning herself at the forefront of a possible Opposition platform against the BJP, regardless of the outcome of the Assembly elections.

In the letter, the chief minister explained in detail how the BJP was trying to establish a “one-party authoritarian rule” in India by diluting the powers of state governments.

“It was surprising that no party has raised its voice against the recent developments that will hurt the federal structure of the country. The chief minister took it on herself to ring the alarm. She is looking at a larger coalition of forces in her battle against the BJP,” said a Trinamul leader.

He added that Mamata’s immediate need to sound out her possible allies about the resolve to fight the BJP stemmed from the BJP’s all-out offensive in the 2021 battle for Bengal.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mamata had made a similar attempt to cobble together an anti-BJP alliance across the country and reached out to key Opposition leaders.

“We want all Opposition parties to work together. We should help the strongest Opposition party in a state to fight the BJP (in the Lok Sabha polls),” Mamata had then said after one of her several parleys with Opposition leaders in New Delhi.

Although her 2019 initiative failed to make much progress after the BJP swept the parliamentary polls, Mamata this time cited the example of the National Capital territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill to underscore the need to fight the BJP.

Mamata said in the letter: “With this law, the BJP government at the Centre has snatched away practically all the powers of the democratically elected government of Delhi, and vested them in the hands of Lt Governor, a nominee of the Centre.…”

Mamata pointed out how the central agencies like the CBI and ED were being unleashed against leaders of non-BJP parties or how the Centre was deliberately withholding funds for non-BJP states.

“Predictably, these institutions target only non-BJP leaders, and never those belonging to the BJP,” she added.