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Tuesday, Mar 22, 2011
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Mamata has her way

Ananya Dutta

Mamata Banerjee releasing her poll manifesto in Kolkata.

KOLKATA: Despite hectic parleys between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress and the pleas of the State Congress to ensure “an alliance of dignity” for the coming West Bengal Assembly elections, it is finally Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee who has prevailed. The Congress eventually capitulated to her offer — with only minor variation — on Monday. It has been allotted 65 seats to contest.

The decision came after Congress president Sonia Gandhi had talks with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who then conveyed the party's position to the Trinamool chief on phone. The party's West Bengal in-charge Shakeel Ahmed and State Congress chief Manas Bhuniya jointly made the announcement in New Delhi on Monday evening.

The decision triggered expressions of strong discontent among sections of the West Bengal Congress.

Ms. Banerjee had outmanoeuvred the Congress when she went ahead and declared the list of her party candidates last Friday, leaving 64 seats for the Congress, with a Monday deadline to settle the alliance, putting the onus of keeping the pact going on the party.

The Congress dutifully met the deadline and, in the process, could get only one extra seat for itself — a far cry from the State leadership's initial claim for 98, which had over time been brought down to 90. Ms. Banerjee's game plan was obvious. Had the Congress not given in to her demands, it would have been held responsible for the failure to stitch up the electoral arrangement for their stated objective — “ousting the Left Front from power in West Bengal.”

Even Ms. Banerjee's unilateral decision to announce her candidates' list was endured keeping in mind the need to not upset the UPA government's applecart at the Centre.

The boat had already been rocked when the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) threatened to pull out its ministers from the UPA government over differences in seat-sharing for the coming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. While the Congress dealt with the situation in Tamil Nadu with a firm hand by not yielding ground to the DMK, it could ill-afford to do so in West Bengal, where the party was as committed as its larger ally in the State, the Trinamool, to dislodging the Left Front from power.

Moreover, with the experience of the 2010 civic elections in West Bengal when the two parties failed to reach an agreement resulting in the Congress faring poorly, the party was hardly in a position to call the shots.

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