The Monkey is benefitted when two cats fight

Congress-Left combine defeats Trinamool mayoral candidate

Indrani Dutta

KOLKATA: The alliance between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, which yielded rich dividends during the Lok Sabha elections, came under strain on Thursday after the Congress mayoral candidate for the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) was elected with the support of the Left Front.

The TMC-Congress combine had wrested 29 of the 47 seats in the SMC elections held on September 13. While the Congress won 15 seats, TMC won 14. The Left Front won 17 seats (15 by the CPI(M) alone). One seat went to an independent. The Left Front had 36 seats in the outgoing body and had held the SMC board since the eighties.

The poll results were seen as a major milestone in the growing influence of the TMC-Congress alliance all over the State.

TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee described Thursday’s development as an “unholy nexus,” which would ultimately strengthen her party. “I will personally go to Siliguri within the next seven days and apologise to the people for not being able to give them an alternative despite getting their poll mandate,” she told a private television channel from New Delhi.

“We know the limitations of such alliances in politics and will serve the people while sitting in the Opposition,” Ms. Banerjee said. She would not take up the matter with the West Bengal Pradesh Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee. “But this is a major incident, as it involves bypassing people’s verdict,” she said.

Working president of the WBPCC Pradip Bhattacharjee told The Hindu that the alliance would not suffer as this was a regional issue. He was confident that the prospects of the alliance for the 2011 Assembly elections would not be affected. Subrata Mukherjee, another working president, said that the alliance was the outcome of a mutual need.

Ms. Banerjee, however, said that future steps would have to be discussed. She was replying to a question whether the alliance would be intact for the coming by-elections to 10 Assembly seats in the State next month.

Ashok Bhattacharyya, West Bengal Urban Development Minister and convenor of the Darjeeling district Zilla Left Front, said that the decision to support the Congress was taken to impart some stability in the region that was rocked by the Gorkha Janmukti agitation.

The Left Front will not share the power with the Congress in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation Board, Left Front Committee chairman Biman Bose said on Thursday. The Left Front would play the role of a constructive Opposition. Mr. Bose said the Darjeeling District Zilla Left Front had decided to support the Congress mayoral candidate from “outside.” The decision followed an appeal by the Congress seeking support of the Left corporators. “The decision was taken to quell the unrest over the issue of selecting a Mayor for the SMC,” he said

Mr. Bose noted that the Trinamool and the Congress had failed to reach a consensus on the issue over the last 15 days.

I hope this is not the beginning of the end of the Congress - TMC alliance.
When Mamata's party had won the parliamentary elections so convincingly and was aspiring to be the Chief Minsiter of Bengal, I had said that that there was still two years left for the assembly elections. In the intervening period I was afraid that she would do something idiotic like Kalidas cutting the branch he was sitting on.
Well, I have been proved correct. She has started cutting the branch.
Mamata is an unstable person with a strong inferiority complex.
She does not trust anyone. That is why she has not named any other TMC MP as a cabinet Minister although with her strength in parliament she could have asked at least one more cabinet berth. That would have made the cabinet minister equal to her, which she cannot allow.
She would like to rule as a dictator. Her word is law.
There is no GIVE AND TAKE. Only Take, no Give.
Under the circumstances, the Congress has only two alternatives.
Work as Junior partner in Bengal to either the Left Front or the TMC.
The Third alternative is to merge th TMC into the Congress.
After all, the TMC was formed because of disagreement between Soumen Mitra and Mamta.
Since Soumen Mitra has now accepted Mamta's leadership, there is no point in maintaining a separate entity.
Mamta can deliver better than Deepa Das who requested the CPM support in Siliguri.
The monkey always benefitted when two cats fought.
Having two women working at cross purposes would harm both the Congress and the TMC.
It is best that the Congress and TMC be merged into the Congress and Mamta be given complete charge.