|
About Turn
With
the Trinamool-Congress alliance gone sour, Mamata Banerjee is desperate
to be back in the NDA. Is she being inconsistent or opportunistic, asks
INDIA TODAY's Correspondent Labonita Ghosh.
Whatever
else the NDA may be, it's certainly not like a railway compartment or
dharamshala. Last week, when Trinamool Congress (TC) leader Mamata Banerjee
sent out feelers that she might return to the alliance this month, BJP
leaders Jana Krishnamurthy and Tapan Sikdar used these analogies to get
a simple message across: Banerjee should not to treat the coalition as
a free-for-all. The warning was necessary. Three months into the TC's
uneasy, pre-election alliance with the Congress, the deal seems to have
soured. Last week, Banerjee blamed the Congress for her party's poll debacle,
claiming the Congress fielded dummy candidates in many crucial seats and
interfered with the TC's chances. After unceremoniously dumping the BJP
just before the May 10 assembly polls, Banerjee, it appears, now wants
to join hands again.
Although both TC and Congress leaders are reluctant to voice it, the alliance
is all but off. Recently, when AICC General Secretary Kamal Nath (who
had brokered the deal in the first place) asked Banerjee to "clarify
her stand" on the Congress, she refused. Last week, TC leaders first
declared they would back the Congress inside the state assembly, then
stayed put as the latter staged a walkout. Congressmen like Pranab Mukherjee
and Somen Mitra have already started declaring that their party is "strong
enough to stand alone". Says Mitra: "Although the TC pledged
to be with us, in practice that's not happening anymore. A witch-hunt
has begun, and we're being blamed for their poll failures. This can't
keep an alliance alive." He adds that Banerjee will have to make
up her mind about it. And soon. For TC insiders, a return to the Centre
is no longer "if", but "when".
Many, however, the road to the NDA will not be smooth. "The BJP will
now put the pressure on," says a TC MP. "Banerjee will literally
have to go crawling back." In other words, TC leaders may discover,
despite a warm welcome from ministers like George Fernandes, that they
have forfeited their bargaining chip. Also, a return could be at the cost
of a split within the party. While most of the TC's nine MPs are agreed
— in varying degrees — on the return, at least 30 of the party's
recently elected legislators are strongly opposed to the move. Another
chunk of MLAs, comprising former Congressmen, is in favour of waiting
before making the plunge. Just so that the TC does not appear inconsistent,
and its tie-up with the Congress opportunistic.
But Banerjee is thinking ahead. Specifically about the panchayat polls
in mid-2002. In 1999, the TC-BJP combine garnered 6,006 seats out of 54,000.
The Congress, on the other hand, has a much better tally of 10,000 seats.
Yet, in a logic-defying stance, the TC will go with the BJP when the state's
3,700 villages go to the hustings. "After switching and changing
partners so often, Banerjee is running out of options," says a TC
leader. Some feel her sole reason for the volte face is her cabinet berth.
At a recent programme in West Bengal, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated
that he was simply "safekeeping" the portfolio for Banerjee.
Given her considerable losses at the assembly polls, Banerjee needs her
place in the cabinet to recoup.
But first, the TC leader has to set her house in order. There's a small
matter of dealing with "rebel" MP Ajit Panja. Just days before
the assembly elections, Panja went public with revelations about Banerjee's
dictatorial and whimsical methods of running the party. More recently,
Panja — supposedly stripped off his multiple posts in the party,
although he claims he has received no intimation — held a convention
in Kolkata the same day as Banerjee. He also declared the formation of
a 10-member core committee and 15 frontal committees which would "bring
back internal democracy and community leadership inside the party, and
have no truck with the Congress", a move that hints at a breakaway.
But Banerjee is not ready to expel him. She wants to keep a cut-to-size
Panja within the party, but divested of a cabinet rank. In fact, among
the conditions mentioned for her return to the NDA, Banerjee is determined
to nominate another MP — sidestepping Panja — to the cabinet
(there are!
three contenders already), thereby keeping the TC's two-minister quota
intact.
With the NDA seemingly within reach, some TC leaders are on a reformist
wave. In a largescale move at consolidation, some MPs have set in motion
a process of formulating ideology-based policies, adopting a definite
programme for rural development ahead of the panchayat polls, and generally
bringing more grassroots leaders into the kitchen cabinet. Workable solutions,
all. "The NDA issue has given us a chance to start from scratch,"
says a party leader. An opportunity Banerjee should grab with both hands.
|
|
|
|
|
