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Trinamul may part ways with NDA

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee's ambition to become chief minister of West Bengal could well spur her to part company with the National Democratic Alliance headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, top intelligence sources have said.

In a confidential report to Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, intelligence officers posted in Bengal said Banerjee had realised that she and her party stood to gain much more by parting ways with the NDA.

The report says Banerjee has asked her colleagues to be ready for any eventuality so that the Trinamul is well placed to fight the Marxist-led Left Front government in the state.

According to the sources, Banerjee's tantrums about the Centre not clamping President's rule in 'lawless' West Bengal barely conceal her intent of ditching the NDA when it suits her.

They pointed out that over the last three weeks, the Trinamul chief has begun feeling that she cannot become Bengal chief minister without the support of the Muslims. Consequently, her complaints against the Vajpayee government have become louder.

The sources said that following submission of the report, Defence Minister George Fernandes, acting as Vajpayee's emissary, tried to persuade Banerjee not to take any hasty action that could destabilise the government. But she is understood to have snubbed him, saying she too is bound by political compulsions. This has caused anxiety in BJP circles.

Though Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan ridiculed any notion of the Trinamul leaving the NDA government, he could not explain Banerjee's reported threat to the BJP leadership that she would quit the Union Cabinet if her demands regarding West Bengal were not met.

"Mamataji is very much with us and there is no question of her leaving the government. Our leadership has given her a patient hearing and I have no doubt that the matter will be amicably settled," Mahajan said.

Trinamul politician Pankaj Banerjee, however, pointed out that every party "has its own set of compulsions and targets" and his party was obliged to meet the aspirations of the people of West Bengal. "West Bengal naturally comes first," he remarked.

With the Trinamul throwing a formidable challenge to the Left in Bengal, it does not seem likely now that Banerjee will be satisfied with her earlier demand of having one more Cabinet-rank minister in the central government.

Her constant refrain that the government is not helping out even as the law-and-order situation in Bengal is worsening, coupled with her prolonged absence from the Centre, indicate that this time around, her regional ambitions may just get the better of her aspirations at the Centre.

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