What is Didi cooking ?
Subhrangshu Gupta
In the past Mamata Banerjee
committed many mistakes.
And now she has done a
new one which may be
gradually isolating her
politically from all other
parties.
Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress did
not participate in the September 10
Bharat bundh called by the
Congress in which some 21 other
political parties took part.
The bundh was observed
protesting against the recent rise in
petrol and diesel prices and the
BJP’s many other anti-people
decisions.
Mamata did not want, but still
the bundh was observed in her
state, though partially, as it had
always happened during several
other bundhs called by the
CPI)M)and other parties in the past.
On the eve of the bundh, Mamata
said they would not participate in
the bundh and her government will
not also support, which other
parties supported and also
participated.
She declared the state had
suffered a lot in the past due to the
bandh and there would be no more
bundh in Bengal.
But she knows it well that the
people and the political parties and
even the trade union leaders in her
party, will not endorse such a
decision and abandon their trade
union activities.
Both the CPI(M) and the
Congress alleged that the decision
of not participating in the bundh
was Mamata’s trick for keeping the
option open for aligning with the
BJP after the elections.
Mamata claims she will again win
most of the seats both in the Lok
Sabha and the state Assembly
elections in Bengal and other states
where she will be fielding their
candidates. But she is also not
ignoring the fact that the BJP
already stood strong in the state,
particularly, in some districts where her popularity has eroded.
Both the CPI(M)
and the Congress
alleged that the
decision of not
participating in the bundh was
Mamata’s trick for
keeping the option
open for aligning
with the BJP after
the elections.
H D Deve Gowda welcoming Mamata Banerjee
An anti-incumbency factor will
also pose problems to the TMC’s in
the polls, which Mamata and other
leaders are also realising. The
people had seen Mamata frequently
changing her political alignment
with the Congress, the BJP and
other parties ( of course, not with
the CPI(M)) in the past as and when
needed and for her survival and
for which her credibility also was hit
to some` extent.
Mamata might claim something
otherwise in public but she will not ignore that the BJP in the coming
days will pose a problem for the
party in retaining their supremacy
in Bengal.
Mamata said she fully supported
the causes on which the Congress’s
bharat bundh was called. But she
did not sit on the same dais with
Soni Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi,
Mammohan Singh and other
leaders at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan
on that day.
The CPI(M) also was not present
at the venue and they were
observing bundh separately.
Mamata met Sonia Gandhi, other
national leaders, including Sharad
Pawer, Sitaram Yechury, Sharad
Yadav, Ms Mayabati, Akhilesh
Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal in the past
few days.
During her stay in Delhi she also
met H D Deve Gowda, his son
(presently, the Karnataka chief
minister), Andhra Pradesh Chief
minister Chandrababu Naidu and
others.
Mamata has not
revealed her mind
about the poll-strategy
and the selection of her
party’s candidates.
Some of her sitting MPs
in the Lok Sabha and
the Assembly, are sure
to lose the chance of
fighting the forthcoming
polls as TMC candidates.
Mamata also called on the
veteran BJP leader L K Advani which she said was a courtesy call, which
she usually did in the past by
meeting both Atal Behari Vajpayee
and Advani during her visit to Delhi.
Mamata has not yet declared her
strategy in the fight for the Lok
Sabha and state Assembly polls,
which might be held simultaneously
or within few months gap between
the two.
While the Lok Sabha polls will be
due after June, 2019, the state
Assembly’s term will expire in May,
2021. If the state poll is advanced ,
then both the elections could be
held jointly in some suitable dates.
But the proposal could be taken
as preposterous by the ruling TMC
and other parties.
Mamata has not opened her
mind so far about the poll-strategy
and also the selection of the party’s
candidates. But one thing is clear
some of her sitting MPs in the Lok
Sabha and the Assembly are sure to
lose the chance of fighting the
forthcoming polls as TMC
candidates.
Some candidates, who were
chosen for their special qualities. in
the last elections, will not surely be
in the fray. Either they themselves
will stay away or they will be
dropped from the candidate list.
The MPs like Tapan Pal, Satabdi
Roy, Moon Moon Sen, Sandhya Roy
etc- all actors- may not be
contesting . The Barasat MLA , the
actor Chiranjit himself said he was
no more interested in the fighting
the poll again. Another Bengali
maintee idol Dev also is unwilling to
contest next time.
Several other sitting MLAs
involved in the anti-party
activities and corruptions will also
lose the opportunity. In that case,
Mamata will have to bring some
new talents and also political
persons, preferably, young and
honest for filling the gap. Some
leaders from the Congress and
the CPI(M) which already left
their parties and joined hand
with Mamata may also be
considered as candidates.