MAMATA WANTS PATNA TO BE OPPOSITION’S POLITICAL BASE
The TMC chief wants to cut to size the ‘big brother role of Congress party’.
After West Bengal Mamata Banerjee made a request to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to have an all-party meeting in Bihar, it is being presumed that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief wants to make Patna the political centre of Opposition unity to size down the “big brother role of Congress party”.
TMC, the ruling party of West Bengal, has been at odds with the Congress recently and had also been trying to form non-congress and non-bjp alliance. In addition to that, it is also being heard that Banerjee is not at a comfortable wavelength with Rahul Gandhi. Responding to Banerjee’s approach of not taking Congress more seriously, a leader close to the Congress president, Malikarjun Kharge, lamented by saying that she has tried to do that earlier as well.
Although a section of Congress leaders show a sense of dissatisfaction with her stiff approach towards the Congress-led alliance, when asked whether the Congress party is comfortable with Banerjee’s pitch to make Patna the political centre of Opposition unity which is to “size down Congress’ big brother image”, AICC general secretary, Tariq Anwar, told The Sunday Guardian, “We have not had any direct talks with Nitishji yet. When we have a one-to-one meeting, then it will be clear whether Congress is comfortable or not.”
According to analysts, if the Congress agrees to the idea, it will send a message that Congress is willing to bend and give space to regional parties. However, that is being seen as a far-fetched idea.
Political observers believe there is less possibility that the meeting would be held in Patna. There is a consideration that no matter how big the Mamata-led TMC is, it would not be able to get more than 30 Lok Sabha seats in the best case scenario.
And the same is with Nitish Kumar. A Patna-based
IPAC member said: “If Nitish Kumar contests on his own, it would be difficult for him to win a respectable number of seats. Congress would on any day get more seats than any regional party and thus it won’t be suitable for them to bend in front of a regional party. And thus the one which has
the most electoral base and national footprint will by default take lead. The meeting would mostly happen in Delhi.”
Party leaders further believe that the equation is likely to change after Karnataka elections. An AICC leader said, “If we win the election, it will give us more bargaining power and give us more confidence to lead the big battle of general elections. We have an edge in the Assembly elections in Karnataka and winning will give more credibility to central leadership.”
However, Chandan Kumar Yadav state secretary of Janata Dal United in Bihar said, “Yes, if there are other parties who support us with Patna being the centre of Opposition unity, we would welcome that. Moreover, Patna has its own place if we see it through the lens of democracy; many movements, including Mahatma Gandhi’s movement, have started from Patna. In future, Mamta ji thinks that Bihar’s chief minister is a reliable person. If something happens under his leadership, there will be maturity in it, there will be reliability in it. So that’s how she views it.”