Concerned over the deteriorating equations between the Trinamool Congress and its unit in West Bengal, the Congress' national leadership has invited senior State leaders, including PCC chief Pradip Bhattacharya and Minister Manas Bhuniya, here for consultations on January 16. Admitting that relations between the two parties were at breaking point, Congress sources said the national leadership was working overtime to keep the Trinamool within the United Progressive Alliance.
The Trinamool's 19 MPs are not just crucial for the UPA's continued stability, these sources said, especially during the forthcoming budget session, but also for the presidential elections later this year. Indeed, on Thursday, both the party and the government issued separate appeals to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, expressing readiness to hold consultations on all contentious issues, ranging from permitting FDI in multi-brand retail to the shape of the now controversial Lokpal Bill.
Congress functionary in charge of West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed — just back from a visit to Kolkata — said here that the party leaders in the State had been asked not to use harsh language against Trinamool activists and appealed to them to reciprocate the sentiments. “We should not use harsh words against each other,” he said, adding Ms. Banerjee was a “valued ally,” and that any quarrel between the two allies would only strengthen the Left Front, which the combine, with great difficulty, defeated after its 34-year stint in power in the State. Mr. Ahmed also stressed that no Congress leader had said the Trinamool would be dumped after next month's Uttar Pradesh elections.
Party sources said Ms. Banerjee, thanks to repeated stories in the West Bengal press, was under the impression that after the U.P. Assembly elections, the Congress would tie up with the 22-MP-strong Samajwadi Party, while pushing the Trinamool out.
Fearing this possibility, these sources added, she was missing no occasion to attack the Congress, so that if it came to breaking point she could say she had dumped the Congress, not the other way around.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, addressing a press conference, stressed that the government would consult all its allies in the UPA to ensure the passage of crucial legislation including the Lokpal Bill: “We will consult all our allies and that includes the Trinamool Congress. We are here to get the legislation passed,” he said. When it was pointed out that Ms. Banerjee's opposition forced the government to retreat on FDI in multi-brand retail, he said it was prepared to “fine-tune” its policy to accommodate her.
The Congress, party sources said, is unhappy with Ms. Banerjee's repeated attacks on it and the fact that she decided to field candidates against it in all the five States going to the polls, but stressed that there was little it could do about it. The most recent episode has been the clash over the Trinamool's efforts to rename Kolkata's Indira Bhavan after Bengal's revolutionary poet, Nazrul Islam. To counter that, the PCC chief wrote to Ms. Banerjee on December 31, suggesting a Nazrul Sadan — on the lines of the Rabindra Sadan (named after Rabindranath Tagore) — in Kolkatta as well as Nazrul centres in every district. Thus far, there has been no reply, Congress sources said.
