World | India
Congress tries to woo Trinamool in West Bengal
The Congress party has stepped up its efforts to get the regional Trinamool Congress on its side ahead of next year's provincial polls in West Bengal.
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 April 29, 2005
The Congress party has stepped up its efforts to get the regional Trinamool Congress on its side ahead of next year's provincial polls in West Bengal.
West Bengal polls will pit the Left Front and the Congress party against each other, although they are allies at the Centre.
Realising the temperamental Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is not enthusiastic, the Congress party has started arm-twisting in order to get her on board.
Banerjee's party is part of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Congress party had managed a coup by wooing Banerjee to forge an alliance with it during the 2001 state polls.
This time Congress wants Banerjee to merge her party with it so as to make it a formidable force and pose a serious challenge to the ruling Marxists who have been in power in the eastern state since 1977.
Trinamool sources, however, say that the arm-twisting tactics adopted by the Congress may force Banerjee to merge her party with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of federal minister Sharad Pawar.
The Congress party started working on the plan to get Banerjee on their side ever since the Trinamool Congress fared badly in last year's general election by winning just two seats. The tally would have been restricted to just one if the former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Agitok Sangma had not joined her party on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls after developing differences with NCP leader Pawar.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried his best to get Banerjee to merge her party with the Congress by offering ministerial berths to both Banerjee and Sangma but he failed in his efforts.
The master strategist that Mukherjee is known to be, he put plan B in action by getting some local Trinamool leaders to give Banerjee a jolt.
Senior Trinamool leader and Kolkata mayor Subrata Mukherjee's Tuesday announcement to float a new forum for dissident party lawmakers is now seen as a last warning to Banerjee to accept the Congress offer. She has the choice of either merging her party or suffering a vertical split.
Sangma on the other hand is all set to return to the NCP and is currently working towards getting Banerjee to come along with him.
"Banerjee never appeared as vulnerable ever since she floated the Trinamool Congress in 1997 after breaking away from the Congress party," a Trinamool Congress official said.
The Congress party put things in perspective by winning six Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal compared to the lone seat won by Banerjee for her party. She has a difficult choice since her rocky ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have failed to work.
The Kolkata mayor Mukherjee, considered a close associate of Banerjee, has already said that he will convert his forum into an independent party in due course and contest next year's provincial polls in association with the Congress party.
Banerjee's erstwhile Man Friday, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, has already left her to join the Congress, leaving her weak and shaken.
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