The Hindu : National : The "mahajot" that never was

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Thursday, Apr 13, 2006

National

National

The "mahajot" that never was

Marcus Dam

Their failure to put up a united front only shows that the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have not learnt from past mistakes

Kolkata

When it comes to coalitions, West Bengal provides a study in contrasts. On the one hand we have the Left Front, a six-time winner, which looks all set to break its own record in the coming Assembly elections. On the other is a fractious opposition that is not just hopelessly in disarray but also divided; irreconcilably divided and split into two separate political groupings.

The efforts to stitch together an anti-Left alliance went on for more than a month after the Left Front released its election manifesto and announced its candidates in mid-February before they were finally given up. The "mahajot" (grand alliance), which was to have been the rallying point for all anti-Left forces in the State, was finally reduced to just an entry in the local political lexicon.

What has emerged is a scenario in which the Paschimbanga Ganatrantik Front, led by the State's largest opposition party, the Trinamool Congress, and the Congress-led United Democratic Alliance, an eight-party combine, are pitted not just against the Left Front but also against each other in a large majority of the 294 constituencies.

Leaders of both wasted no time criticising each other for having failed to join ranks against the Left. It was not just had they lost out on an opportunity to give the Left Front a run for its money but the lessons of the panchayat, Lok Sabha and civic elections were also lost on them. In each of these elections, the Left Front increased its share of both seats and votes. But in the 2001 Assembly elections which preceded them, the Trinamool and the Congress together polled more than 38 per cent of the votes, about two per cent more than the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

What went wrong with the Opposition whose leaders, over the past few months, had been crying themselves hoarse over the need for a unified front?

Unwilling to compromise

Neither the Congress nor the Trinamool took the political course the one demanded of the other. The leadership of the former refused to buy the argument that political compulsions at the national level could be separated from those at the State level. And unwilling to make the necessary compromises, their leaders took to mud-slinging, accusing each other of ruining the prospects of a unified opposition.

The Congress leadership said it would not backtrack from its policy of having no truck with any party sharing an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Trinamool countered by pointing out that the Congress, which was proving to be nothing "more than a `B' team of the CPI(M)" was only playing into the hands of the Left by declining to be part of a "mahajot."

With a Left Front win on the cards, the only thing that remains to be seen is which of the two groupings will put up a better showing in the battle of the ballot in West Bengal.

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