Oppn rift widens with potshots at Cong brass
NEW DELHI: A tussle between the Congress and its one-time ally Trinamool Congress (TMC) over leadership of the Opposition intensified on Thursday with the former criticising Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC’S poll strategist Prashant Kishor saying no one had the “divine right” to lead the grand old party.
The war of words came a day after Banerjee launched an unprecedented, though veiled, attack on the Congress and said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), a coalition she was a part of, didn’t exist anymore. She said if someone stayed abroad “half the time” and wasn’t on the field, the BJP will “bowl you out”,ostensibly a reference to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Her comment was seen as adding to the TMC’S attempts to aggressively expand its national footprint, keep the Congress at bay and emerge as a national alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
On Thursday, Kishor, widely credited for the TMC’S victory in the Bengal election in May, appeared to expand on the idea. “The IDEA and SPACE that #Congress represents is vital for strong opposition. But Congress’ leadership is not the DIVINE RIGHT of an individual especially, when the party has lost more than 90% elections in last 10 years,” he tweeted. “Let opposition leadership be decided democratically,” he added. The Congress hit back immediately. “Hell hath no fury like a strategist scorned,” said the party’s national spokesperson Pawan Khera.
Later in the day, party general secretary Randeep Surjewala launched a more frontal attack on Banerjee. “For her, it can be political expediency, but for us fighting the BJP and RSS is close to us,” he said.“is Mamata not doing the same as Modi ji is doing. Modi ji is buying legislators and so is Mamata ji. Modi ji is breaking parties and so is Mamata ji doing in breaking parties,” he added.
Banerjee and the Congress leadership enjoyed a warm personal relationship but ties dipped sharply in recent months as the TMC signalled its national ambitions, entering the electoral space in Goa, Tripura and most recently, Meghalaya. On the other hand, the Congress was roiled by the exit of prominent leaders and internal disagreements over the party’s direction. In the last three months, the TMC engineered high-profile defections from the Congress, including former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro and ex-assam MP Sushmita Dev. Last week, the TMC poached 12 lawmakers from the Congress in Meghalaya, including former CM Mukul Sangma. Kishor is seen as the primary architect of the TMC’S political manoeuvres.
On Wednesday, Banerjee also made a pitch for unifying opposition parties to take on the BJP. She was accompanied during the media interaction by NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The Congress dismissed her remarks. “Without the Congress, the UPA will be a body without a soul. Time to show opposition unity,” tweeted senior leader Kapil Sibal, without referring to Banerjee.
Kishor and the Congress, for whom the strategist worked in 2017, also share a tumultuous history. According to people familiar with the matter, talks between Kishor and the Congress broke down three months ago amid resistance from a significant part of the party to Kishor’s demands. Kishor responded to a request for comment with a smiley emoji.
Two senior Congress leaders said Kishor had a set of demands for his entry in the Congress.
“He wanted to be a member of the Congress Working Committee, the top executive body and be appointed as general secretary election planning of the AICC,” said a senior leader, who is also an MP. Neither was an issue; the Congress has seen lateral entries at senior levels: K Raju, an Ias-officer turned Rahul Gandhi aide, and Praveen Chakravarthy, the chief of data analytics department, and a few others.
“But he also proposed that starting from the booth level right up to the state unit level of the Congress there would be a parallel structure exclusively to handle elections. This raised a lot of questions,” said the second leader.
The first leader added that timing may have been an issue; Kishor said he would start working with the Congress after the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab elections.
“Several leaders also questioned why he wanted to start working for the Congress after the UP and Punjab elections—top priorities for the party.”
There was also distrust. “Some questioned whether he could be trusted to stay with the Congress when he was in demand from many parties such as TMC, DMK, YSRCP.” Both leaders did not want to be identified.
“Four months back, in August , Congress president Sonia Gandhi sought the opinion of each and every CWC member on Kishor’s proposal. Many senior leaders felt that the structure that PK proposed might run parallel to the Aicc-appointed hierarchy in the states,” said a third leader, a senior member of the CWC, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On July 13, Kishor met Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. A month later, he quit as political advisor to then Punjab CM Amarinder Singh. Kishor earlier worked with Rahul Gandhi when he was in charge of the Congress’ unsuccessful campaign (in partnership with the Samajwadi Party) in UP in 2017.