THE ruling Trinamool Congress-Congress coalition in West Bengal is an alliance that began on an acrimonious note. Forged out of political necessity, it continues, notwithstanding bickering, distrust and resentment. The apparent rapport at the top level of the two parties is not reflected in the relationship among the grass-roots workers. Behind the facade of an alliance there is a fierce struggle to gain political space, and leaders of both parties admit this.
A contest for organisational base and expansion, between the Congress and the Trinamool, is in the making, and macro aspects of cooperation and coordination, vital for both the parties at present, are not getting reflected at the grass-roots and micro-levels. It is unfortunate but inevitable, Pradesh Congress general secretary Om Prakash Mishra told Frontline. The inevitability of it lies in the fact that ever since Mamata Banerjee broke away from the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress in 1998, the party's vote bank has mostly consisted of what it took away from the parent party. And ever since, the Pradesh Congress has been making a big effort to win it back.
Apart from the political battle that often takes a vicious turn, scars of old enmity refuse to heal. The forging of an alliance has done little to straighten out the differences.
One of the many causes of tension between the two parties is the continuous exodus of leaders and workers from the Congress to the Trinamool. This attrition seems to have continued even after the alliance was formed. The most telling feature of this trend is the case of Ram Pyare Ram, the six-time Congress Member of the Legislative Assembly, who, at the insistence of the Trinamool, was denied the ticket to contest in the Assembly elections. He contested, nonetheless, as an independent candidate and lost. Thereafter, he left the Congress to join the Trinamool. I joined the Trinamool to seek respect. I could not get it in the Congress, he said. Political observers, however, attribute an opportunistic motive behind his decision to defect.
The Congress leadership believes that the trend is now being reversed. In the past two months, several Congress workers who had joined the Trinamool returned to the party. This development was prominent particularly in South 24 Paraganas and South Dinajpur districts. Party workers in both the regions admit that this is not indicative of a change in the mindset of the voters, who continue to be firmly behind the Trinamool. It means that the downward slide of the Congress' fortunes is over, and whether the Trinamool likes it or not, the Congress will now grow at the cost of the Trinamool, a senior party leader said.
While the Congress has been angry with the Trinamool for eroding its support base and weaning away its cadre, its major grievance is that the breakaway party is allegedly trying to take over its identity completely by appending its name or using the names of its affiliate organisations. This has been a point of considerable irritation to Congress workers. There is no justification for adopting names such as Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, Trinamool Yuva Congress, even Trinamool INTUC. This shows either a lack of ideas or an attempt to project itself as the Congress party, a senior Congress leader said. Sources in the Trinamool maintain that this complaint only betrays the Congress' fear of being swallowed by its alliance partner.
A large section of the Congress insists that the Trinamool was successful in defeating the Left Front in the Assembly elections this year only because it entered into an electoral understanding with the Congress. In spite of this, the Congress has been denied its rightful share of the political largesse, they complain. A party which could not muster more than 25 per cent of the votes when it allied with the BJP became a major force in alliance with the Congress, a State-level Congress leader pointed out.
The Trinamool leadership, however, dismisses such claims. The reality is that the Congress has no existence in West Bengal. In fact it won 42 seats only because it allied itself with us, Trinamool leader and West Bengal Minister for Public Health Engineering Subrata Mukherjee said. The Trinamool Congress is the single largest party in the State with, a strength of 185 in the 294-member Assembly. With a tally of 18 Lok Sabha seats, it is the second-largest constituent in the UPA. These are two facts that the Trinamool never tires of reminding the Congress. They will not be able to do anything to us in West Bengal, but if we decide to be difficult then the Congress at the Centre will be in a whole lot of trouble, Subrata Mukherjee pointed out.
Suhrid Sankar ChattopadhyayCOMMents
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