The Hand Beckons A Grass Root

The Congress needs Mamata to counter BJP. But its Bengal cadre loathes the TMC. Is an alliance feasible?

- Dola Mitra

A course correction that was due nearly two decades back is about to be embarked upon in West Bengal: an indirect ack­nowledgement by the Congr­ess party high-command that Mamata Banerjee is the undisputed political supremo in the state.

In 1998, Mamata broke away from the Congress and floated her own outfit­—the Trinamool Congress, turning it into the main source of resistance against the Left Front. Through the years of the TMC’s growth, the West Bengal unit of the Con­gress—once a mighty arm—was steadily marginalised. Since 2011, the TMC has been the ruling party in West Bengal; it managed to be re-elected with an even greater majority in the 2016 assembly polls, mauling the Left and totally side­lining the Congress, thus firmly entrenching Mamata’s control in the state.

Speculation is rife in Bengal political cir­­cles that the Congress is now trying to reach out to the Trinamool so that the two can come together in the 2019 parliamentary elections—amidst a wide-ranging all­­iance of the opposition—in an attempt to oust the BJP from power at the Centre.

The move, however, is still tentative, as there are many in the state Congress, who as in the past, are totally against Mamata and even under the changed circumsta­nces are not prepared to rally behind the Trinamool for the much needed alliance. But there is no denying that att­empts are on to bring the two together.