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Trinamul sees exodus with Mukherjee's appointment

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee's appointment on Tuesday as West Bengal party chief has placed him in the 'hot-seat'. He now has the unenviable and uphill task of taking on the resurgent Trinamul Congress and the ruling Marxists in the state.

Mukherjee's appointment has been welcomed by Trinamul leaders, particularly party chief Mamata Banerjee, who feels that it will lead to an exodus from the Congress to her party.

"There was no better way for the Congress to drive the last nails in its coffin. Mukherjee has no political base in the state. In fact, he became a Rajya Sabha member with support from the Communist Party of India- Marxists and it is ridiculous to expect him to fight the government when he secretly relies on it," said senior Trinamul leader Pankaj Banerjee.

"The Panskura bypoll proved that our party is the sole challenger to this tottering Left Front government. The Trinamul will replace it. The civic elections only strengthened this feeling. The Congress, whose downslide is apparent in West Bengal, is ill-equipped to fight the Jyoti Basu government, especially now that Pranabda has taken over," Banerjee contended.

Although prima facie Mukherjee has welcomed his appointment, Congress sources indicated that he shot off a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi underlining his "services to her and the party". He reportedly complained that his appointment had placed him in a hopeless situation, considering that the party was rapidly losing ground to the Trinamul.

However, following his appointment, Mukherjee told reporters that the Congress had received 40 per cent votes in West Bengal and that he would do his best to improve its electoral performance.

But that appears to be easier said than done.

Outgoing West Bengal Congress chief A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury [popularly known as Barkatda] had been advocating a grand alliance of the Trinamul-Bharatiya Janata Party combine and the Congress to fight the Left Front. Chowdhury had been pushing for the alliance with Sonia Gandhi, but the latter had resisted it mainly on the advice of senior party leader Arjun Singh, All-India Congress Committee sources indicated.

The recent resignation of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel as AICC treasurer and his return to Gujarat politics and now Mukherjee's appointment as West Bengal party chief have led to criticism in Congress circles that Arjun Singh is manipulating Sonia.

According to AICC sources, Singh's apparent ascendancy in the party, following his election to the Rajya Sabha and his subsequent "hold" over Sonia have also irritated the likes of Congress deputy leader in Parliament Madhavrao Scindia, who has to live with the unpleasant fact considering Singh's proximity to No 10 Janpath.

There is little doubt that Mukherjee's entry into the West Bengal political arena will lift the thin veil on the nexus Chowdhury had with the Trinamul leadership, particularly Mamata.

In fact, Chowdhury, along with former West Bengal party chief Somen Mitra, had repeatedly told Sonia that the best course for the Congress was the grand alliance.

"It is evident that Congress members want to join our party. We are having problems accommodating all and sundry. But it only shows that while the Trinamul is rising rapidly in West Bengal, the Congress is receding into oblivion," said Trinamul Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandopadhyay.

According to him, his party was not affected by the grand alliance being put on the backburner. But with the Trinamul marching ahead in West Bengal, it remains to be seen how Sonia handles the situation.

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