HVK Archives: Tie-up with BJP inevitable: Bengal Cong. leader
Tie-up with BJP inevitable: Bengal Cong. leader - The Hindu
Malabika Bhattacharya
()
9 April 1997
Title : Tie-up with BJP inevitable: Bengal Cong. leader
Author : Malabika Bhattacharya
Publication : The Hindu
Date : April 9, 1997
A senior West Bengal Congress(I) leader today said a coming
together of his party and the BJP ,at the State level would become
"sort of inevitable" if it could not regain power at. the Centre or
in West Bengal in the next two years.
West Bengal INTUC president, Mr. Subrata Mukherjee, said the
Congress(I) would be facing fragmentation if the leadership failed
to pacify "millions of restless supporters" by regaining power
which it lost in New Delhi last year and in the State 20 years ago.
Coming as it does at the time of the political crisis at the
Centre, Mr. Mukherjee's suggestion triggers speculation about the
future of the Congress(I) in West Bengal, where a sizable section
of the party functionaries has ranged itself against the national
leadership.
"The way the political scenarios are changing all over the country,
we cannot go on with our anti-BJP stance for long," he told The
Hindu here. Many Opposition parties were actually a lot more
flexible these days in their attitude to their ideological rivals.
"We must learn to refashion our attitudes."
According to political analysts, Mr. Mukherjee's call for an
"attitudinal change" may what the current debate in the State unit
on the acceptability of the Congress-Left efforts at forging an
alliance at the national level to an average Congressman in West
Bengal, where the Leftists, especially Mr. Jyoti Basu's Communist
Party of India (Marxist), are perceived as his natural foes.
Ms. Mamata Banerjee, pugnacious MP, has triggered the debate - much
to the chagrin of the high command - by questioning the
alliance-building exercise and opining that in the event of the
effort becoming a reality, it would strike at the very existence of
the Congress in West Bengal, where the CPI(M)-led Left coalition
has been in power for the past 20 years.
After contributing handsomely to the successful campaign launched
by the heavyweights in New Delhi for ouster of Mr. P. V Narasimha
Rao as Congress president and induction of Mr. Sitaram Kesri last
February, many Bengal Congress functionaries hoped for rewards for
the part they played, but they were disappointed, even angry, when
they saw that the new president, instead of sacking Mr. Somen
Mitra, PCC chief in favour of Ms. Banerjee, actually elevated him
further.
Since then, Ms. Banerjee and her associates have been trying to
plot Mr. Kesri's downfall by aligning themselves with various
anti-Kesri lobbies. After the present crisis broke out at the
Centre, Ms. Banerjee and others, with open encouragement from Mr.
P. R. Das Munshi, another disgruntled Congressman, criticised Mr.
Kesri for holding talks with Mr. Basu, on working out a solution.
In their view, Mr. Kesri let the party down by calling on the West
Bengal Chief Minister. "That way he gave uncalled for
respectability to someone who has let loose unimaginable atrocities
on our party supporters in Bengal." Before leaving for New Delhi
last evening, Ms. Banerjee is believed to have asked her
lieutenants including Mr. Mukherjee to be ready for any eventuality
such as a snap poll or floating of a regional party.
What appears to have excited the anti-Kesri lobby in Bengal is the
emergence of regional parties such as the Tamil Maanila Congress
(TMC), and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which rose from the
scratch. Both Mr. G. K. Moopanar of the TMC and Mr. Kanshi Ram,
BSP leader, have became heavyweights in national politics by virtue
of their parties' achievements in the last elections.
In the words of Mr. Mukherjee, "a temporary arrangement with BJP is
nothing to snigger at. With the introduction of coalition politics
at the national level, no party is untouchable. Besides, in the
current fluid political situation, a regional party carved out of
the Congress would always be welcome to the fold of the mother
party when the situation demands."
Taking Mr. Moopanar as a model, Ms. Banerjee wants to be the boss
of a party which will have a distinct Congress background yet be
independent of the Congress and be able to enter into hard
bargaining with the Congress(I) and other parties at the national
level as and when the situation arises.
However, Ms. Banerjee and others realise that they cannot build a
party on their own because they do not have the money power. A new
party needs to try to strike root in different districts where the
mainline parties spend money and use concessions like jobs and
contracts to maintain their bases.
In practical terms, the disgruntled Congress functionaries like Ms.
Banerjee will have to have support from a cash-flush organisation
like the BJP.
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