The Hindu : National : Efforts on for `mahajot' for West Bengal civic polls

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Sunday, Apr 03, 2005

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National

Efforts on for `mahajot' for West Bengal civic polls

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, APRIL 2. Across West Bengal the decibel level is fast rising following the mainline Opposition parties' frenetic efforts to stitch up a `mahajot', an euphemism for a grand alliance ahead of the elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and over 80 municipal bodies.

For the parties like Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, Sonia Gandhi's Indian National Congress and several groupings, the current exercise is, in the words of a senior leader, "extremely important" in that a successful culmination of the exercise in the civic elections will determine whether the Opposition would be able to structure a `final' grand alliance during the 2006 Assembly election. The Opposition's dismal performance in the past elections is because of the splitting of their ballots as well as the consolidation of the ones controlled by the ruling Leftists.

"I, for one, would work towards structuring a `mahajot' in the coming civic elections keeping in view next year's Assembly election. Without a grand alliance, we cannot hope to post any result worthy of mention in the 2006 election. So we must do it, if possible, taking the smaller parties into account, too," says Priyaranjan Das Munshi, the Union Minister.

Mr. Das Munshi plans to structure a grand alliance co-opting all parties and groupings in the Opposition into it barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This is where the rub lies.

As far as Ms. Banerjee is concerned, the Congress is unreliable as a partner given her experience of the 2001 alliance with it, which saw an Opposition washout in the last Assembly election.

"If anything, I am opposed to getting into any grand alliance on conditions. I dislike the CPI(M) as they do the BJP. So let them first dump the CPI(M) at the national level where it is in power with help from the Leftists, I will dump the BJP in a matching gesture," says Ms. Banerjee.

As is the case, the exercise in stitching up the elusive grand alliance is also being driven by the individual agendas. For example, Mr. Das Munshi is busy trying to prove to the party high command that he alone is acceptable to the Opposition parties as well as the Congress grassroots workers.

Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, one time Ms. Banerjee's mentor, represents different strokes for different folks. Aware of his dependence on Ms. Banerjee, he would, at one level, echo his leader and say he is opposed to a `mahajot'. At another, he is busy building bridges with both Mr. Das Munshi and Mr. Mukherjee. Realising that the talks of a `mahajot' is creating a debilitating confusion in the ranks, Ms. Banerjee has asked her party functionaries not to press her for entering into any kind of alliance with the Congress. "I will have to take action against such people."

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