Anita Katyal | Defections Set Off Jitters In Cong; TMC Now Akin To ‘Three-ring circus’

Determined to shore up its numbers in the Lok Sabha, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has been on an overdrive, intensifying its efforts to lure away legislators from rival political parties through a series of defections. The defectors have either merged with the BJP or its allies while others have aligned themselves with the ruling dispensation by setting up a separate grouping. The BJP’s aggressive push has predictably perturbed its political opponents as no one is sure who is next in the firing line. Consequently, party bosses these days are a jittery lot if their legislators do not respond to their calls. The Congress leadership recently faced such tense moments when Punjab leaders were called to Delhi for a meeting to sort out their factional battles. Shortly before the meeting began, frantic calls were made to locate the missing state leaders but some calls did not go through while a number of phones were switched off. There was all-round panic as the Congress can ill-afford a repeat of the Trinamul Congress fiasco in Punjab which is going to polls next year. There was a collective sigh of relief when the Punjab leaders started trickling in one by one.

The defections in the Trinamul Congress and the Uddhav Thackery-led Shiv Sena were planned in detail by the Bharatiya Janata Party which began by identifying the weakness of each potential defector. Take the case of a senior Trinamul Congress and former minister. Since he returned to Parliament after a gap, he was allotted a flat though he was entitled to a type VIII bungalow. The Trinamul leader subsequently put in an application for a bungalow which was expectedly kept pending by the powers-that-be. It was no surprise that the Trinamul leader was informed that a bungalow would soon be allotted to him just when his colleagues were crossing over to the BJP. The offer was declined as the former minister did not take the bait. He preferred to stay on in his present accommodation and with Mamata Bannerjee. This is just one case. It can be said with certainty that there is a similar tale for every defector.

The ongoing political churn in the Trinamul Congress post its defeat in the recent Assembly elections can best be described as a three-ring circus. Unless there are some dramatic developments in the coming days, there are now three Trinamul groupings. While one is led by the former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, another group of 20 Trinamul Congress MPs, led by her former loyalist and now a neo-Hindutva convert Kakoli Dastidar, has merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India. And then there is the rebel group of Trinamul Congress MLAs in the state Assembly which is neither here nor there. This group maintains it is the real Trinamul Congress and is planning to lay claim to the party symbol and finances. Hemmed in from all sides, Mamata Banerjee has hit the streets once again last week. She walked unobstructed for over a kilometre to protest the eviction of hawkers on the day when the Left parties got an injunction against the eviction orders. Though uncoordinated, this collective action is not exactly what the BJP had bargained for.

Here’s more on the Trinamul Congress. Actor-turned-politician Saayoni Ghosh was the party’s star campaigner in the recent Assembly polls. Her fiery speeches hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party were a huge draw with the crowds even as she heaped praise on Mamata Banerjee. Not only has Saayoni Ghosh lost no time in switching loyalties to the BJP, it is learnt she also wants the new Trinamul group to come down hard on Mamata Banerjee. During an internal discussion, a section among the defecting MPs suggested they should go soft on their former leader and focus their attack on her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Party insiders revealed that Saayoni Ghosh instead argued that since they had walked out of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, they should make a clean break with it and spare no one, including the former chief minister. It now appears that her earlier speeches were an act. To borrow a line from the Hollywood film Notting Hill: She’s an actress… so she can deliver a line.

As the infighting in the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress continued to intensify, the party leadership set up a three-member committee, headed by Rajya Sabha member Shakti Sinh Gohil, whose mandate is not to end factionalism but to look into acts of indiscipline. Ironically, the panel headed to Kashmir for its first meeting even though the Congress has no presence in the Valley while it still retains pockets of influence in the Jammu region. In fact, most senior state leaders come from this belt. Congress insiders are convinced it was deliberately decided not to hold the meeting in Jammu as the committee members could have faced the wrath of the party’s disgruntled workers, who are concentrated in this region. The choice of venue was apparently cleared by Congress general secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir Syed Naseer Hussain who obviously wanted to avoid any unpleasant scenes.