Kolkata: West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is on tenterhooks over the possibility of Congress party forming an alliance with CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) for the upcoming assembly polls in April.
Though the party is publicly trying dissuade the ongoing talks, by calling it “signs of political bankruptcy” of both the parties, the party is already preparing to take on the proposed coalition as it starts to campaign by mid-February.
“We are not bothered about any alliance. Those who are insecure about their political stake in the state are now trying to cobble up alliance in their own interest and to save each other. This will not be the first time we will contest on our own. We contested 2014 Parliamentary elections, Panchayat polls (rural body election) and municipals polls and won with massive majority,” TMC leader Mukul Roy told Gulf News.
“We have already declared some of our candidates and finalising the list of cabinet members as everyone knows we will return to power whether there is an alliance or not,” minister Partha Chatterjee said.
Meanwhile much to the embarrassment of the party, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had said during his meeting with state Congress leaders that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had advised him during the swearing-in ceremony of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar that he should ensure that there is no alliance with the CPM.
“These are baseless [rumours] being circulated by the Congress and CPM trying to showcase that we are afraid of the possible coalition. Our leader had not shared anything with Gandhi during the ceremony and we are not bothered,” Chatterjee added.
A simple arithmetical calculation though puts the TMC in a neck-to-neck fight with the alliance of the CPM and the Congress.
In 2011, TMC secured 38.93 per cent of the popular vote with CPM 30.08 per cent and while Congress party which was in an alliance with TMC secured 9.09 per cent of the votes polled. Other Left parties including CPI, Forward bloc secured close to 10 per cent of the votes.
“A basic calculation shows that coalition has a 80 per cent chance of winning while contesting alone Congress party will not secure more than 6 per cent of the popular vote,” Sudhin Roy, a political analyst, said.
However, objections from the Kerala leaders of both CPM and Congress are giving West Bengal leaders sleepless night.
“West Bengal is more critical than Kerala since it has 42 parliamentarian seats while Kerala has 21. The difference in number of assembly seats is equally large,” said state Congress secretary Om Prakash Mishra.
“They are worried that an alliance in West Bengal will ensure that they cannot comeback to power in Kerala. These are two different states and they are not interdependent and hence they should not jeopardise our plans,” CPM leader Surya Kanti Mishra said.
