Congress looks for dependable ally in Bengal

The Congress is assessing who is a more dependable ally between the Trinamul Congress and the Left parties for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls. But its real objective is to check the BJP from gaining mileage from the anti-incumbency factor and a division of votes.

“We are looking at the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” said a Congress strategist while indicating that the party’s line of alliances and understandings in the Assembly polls would be decided by this yardstick. The AICC’s thinking is to stop the BJP from gaining space at any cost, irrespective of who wins the elections between the Trinamul Congress and the Left.

For example, if the Congress allies with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul, then the BJP could exploit the anti-government space.

And if the Congress goes with the Left, then it will have a bearing on the Kerala Assembly polls. In such a situation, the Left would be a gainer in Kerala and West Bengal as well.

The Trinamul’s critics in the Congress point out how the Mamata Banerjee-led party had fought the elections and shared power with the BJP in the NDA. Besides, the Saradha chit fund scam would make the Trinamul Congress more vulnerable in the coming days, weakening its fight against the BJP, they felt.

Regional parties cannot fight the BJP, instead they make compromises with it for power, Congress insiders said while drawing attention to how the DMK, AIADMK, TDP, JD(U), JD(S), INLD, RLD, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, PDP, and JMM had allied with the BJP, while Ms Mayawati became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on BJP support.

The RJD and Samajwadi Party might be opposed to the BJP, but they have weakened the Congress in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav wanted to make Mrs Sonia Gandhi Prime Minister but ensured that the Congress would be the RJD’s B-team in Bihar.

A section of the Congress praises the Left and their ideological commitment but cannot explain why the grand old party ditched the Left on the nuclear deal issue and how it had managed the support of MPs of other parties in the Lok Sabha in 2008 to remain in power.

In Parliament, especially in the Lok Sabha, the Congress is desperately relying on the support of the Trinamul Congress (34 members) in the fight against the Modi government.

Meanwhile, keeping open its options to form alliances with “like-minded” parties for the West Bengal Assembly polls, the CPI(M) on Tuesday said it was for “other parties to decide” whether they want to join hands with it and stated that removing the Trinamul Congress was its target to “save the state”.

“In West Bengal, our intention is to remove TMC, save West Bengal. Remove the Modi government, save the country. These are our two slogans and we are moving on following this line. Who comes or does not come with us, it is for them to decide,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

Asked specifically whether the CPI(M) would tie up with the Congress for the election, likely in April-May this year, Mr Yechury did not rule out the possibility outright.