Anti-alliance sentiment may affect Trinamool, Cong. prospects

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, APRIL 22. With new alliances in place, old ties reaffirmed and the business of managing individual loyalties over, the final picture about the May 10 assembly election in West Bengal can be said to have fully emerged. Irrespective of the poll outcome, there are no two minds that Bengal is going to witness the most colourful, keenly fought and crucial election in recent times.

The great electoral battle for control of the 294 seats, in the main, will be confined to three major formations: the ruling Left Front, the quickly cobbled Congress-Trinamool alliance heading an undefined ``Bangla Bachao'' or Save Bengal Front and the Bharatiya Janata party(BJP) and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance. Of them, the CPI(M)-led Left Front does not contain any surprise as it has been embedded in office for a record 24 years and, if things go right for it in the election, the Front will be able to have another five-year shot at office soon.

In a way, the BJP and its NDA allies, many of whom will cut their teeth in Bengal politics, are without worries as they are not expected to be serious performers. Though it does not say it in as many words, the sole objective for the BJP appears to be to poison the well for the Trinamool chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, by fielding candidates in all the seats and split the anti-Left ballots. The muted backlash to Trinamool from its own ranks and popular disenchantment with its leadership would enable the BJP to considerably improve its percentage of votes and, if possible, a few seats, its leadership argues.

The talk of the town is the Congress-Trinamool alliance. After the ambitious alliance has come into operation, hardly a day passes without Ms. Banerjee and the neutered Congress leadership facing tormented nominees or angry ticket seekers from different parts of Bengal.

In both the parties, a realisation is gaining ground that the purpose of the alliance is being defeated by the unconcealed resistance to it from their own workers who think that the alliance concerns only the top leaders and not their sentiments. The anti-alliance activity in Trinamool and Congress is not confined only to the far-flung constituencies. Aggrieved nominees and their followers are descending on the headquarters of the two parties from different parts of Kolkata and suburbs, clamouring for a solution. Ms. Banerjee has made herself off- limits to most of her people, while the State Congress leaders are trying to deflect the rage of their supporters by telling them to go to Delhi and meet the party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi to tell their tales of woe.

Look at what is happening in Malda in North Bengal where the Congress has at least seven MLAs. Giving an open thumbs down to the alliance, the Malda strongman, Mr. A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, also MP for many terms, has declared a virtual ``jehad''(holy war) against the Trinamool and set up nominees of his choice including, Mr. Gautam Chakraborty, in the contentious Englishbazar. A piqued Ms. Banerjee has fielded her own nominee for the seat but neither she nor the Congress high command has the courage to ask Mr.Khan Choudhury to withdraw his supporters. The picture is similar in the neighboring Murshidabad district where the Congress MP, Mr. Adhir Chowdhury, has made no bones about the fact that he would do everything possible to make the lives of the combine's official candidates miserable unless the nominees recommended by him are allowed to contest.

What exactly compelled Ms. Gandhi and Ms. Banerjee to patch up and force their functionaries in Bengal to accept such a hotch- potch alliance? Ms. Gandhi's compulsions to tie up with Trinamool are many. Of them, two stand out. First, she thought she would be able to considerably lessen her party's known dependence on the Leftists at the national level if she managed to get Ms. Banerjee on her side and through her, the other NDA partners such as the Telugu Desam as and when she is ready to stake her claim at the Centre.

Secondly, she reckons her move would help her consolidate her rump party in Bengal. In her calculations, the Bengal Congress, on its own, could not have garnered more than ten seats. With Ms. Banerjee's support, the party can now expect to secure at least 30 seats.

However, what Ms. Gandhi has overlooked while calculating the gains is the psyche of her leaders and workers in the State.

Ever since Ms. Banerjee left her mother party, Congress, three years ago, the breach between the two parties widened to no end. No amount of unity exercises can bridge that gap. In public, the leaders may swallow the bitter pill, called alliance, and smilingly pose for photographs with Ms. Banerjee but in private, they are fuming at the alliance. Their sentiments are not difficult to understand because the grassroot Congress workers who suffered unimaginable humiliation in the hands of Trinamool in the past three years are in no mood to hug them just because the high command asks them to. What will perhaps be of consolation to Ms. Gandhi is the fact that the Trinamool leaders, too, are working overtime to demolish the alliance.

So deep-seated is the resentment that the combine's workers do not mind striking up a deal with the Leftists or the BJP, Ms. Banerjee 's former ally, to undercut each other's nominees. The Bengal Congress, right now, is a nervous wreck and the reason is not far to seek. It knows that even if it emerges relatively stronger in this election, it would not remain in one piece. Ms. Banerjee would waste no time to break it even further. The Congress had a taste of it when Ms. Banerjee, even after the alliance was forged, showed no qualms about eroding the Congress by weaning away some of its functionaries with the offer of tickets.

As for Ms. Banerjee, she had no option but to embrace Congress she had once abused as the Communists' B-team. She realised that unless she dumped the BJP before the poll, chances of collecting the minority ballots were dim.

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Section  : State Elections
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