11

Dec

Is NDA Behind Mamata’s Bid to Head Opposition Alliance ? 

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Dr Satish Misra   

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New Delhi | Wednesday | 11 December 2024

Information is coming out revealing the Modi-Shah duo’s role in undercutting   Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s position in the Opposition  alliance as more and more  Opposition leaders are supporting TMC chief Mamata Banerjee’s bid to head the alliance.. There is reason to believe that it is a plot hatched by the BJP-RSS  think tank  to protect Prime Minister Modi and his NDA  government which is now under serious threat from a resurgent Congress led by Rahul Gandhi and his sister . Priyanka Gandhi, it may be recalled, recently won the Lok Sabha by-election from Wayanad with a  margin bigger than the one by which the Congress had won the seat in the general elections earlier this year.   

The plot to malign the image of Rahul Gandhi-a staunch opponent of RSS’s long- time ideological onslaught on the country’s Constitution, has been prepared diligently and carefully and its root operation has begun in West Bengal whose leader Mamata Banerjee stirred the pot by expressing her willingness to take over the leadership of the Opposition alliance allegedly from Rahul Gandhi though he was never declared the leader of the alliance. In fact, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge holds that honour.      

Lalu Prasad on Tuesday (10 December 2024) joined the chorus for Mamata Banerjee to head the Opposition bloc, the INDI Alliance, stirring afresh a pot that most thought had been settled with the Congress emerging the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha election.

As these Opposition leaders began to speak, a clear thread has emerged pointing to a churn in Bengal as well.

 

Article at a Glance
The ongoing political dynamics within the INDI alliance reveal a concerted effort by the ruling establishment to undermine Rahul Gandhi's role as the Leader of the Opposition. Allies, including Mamata Banerjee and Lalu Prasad, are increasingly advocating for Mamata to lead the opposition bloc, despite Congress being the largest party in the Lok Sabha.
This shift comes amid a backdrop of Mamata's historically strained relationship with the Bengal governor, which appears to be softening, as indicated by recent cooperative gestures.
While Mamata expresses her willingness to take charge of the alliance, the Congress remains silent on the matter, highlighting the fractures within the opposition. The recent electoral losses in Haryana and Maharashtra have further exposed these divisions.
As Mamata positions herself as a capable leader, the future of the INDI alliance hangs in the balance, reflecting the complexities of opposition politics in India.

 

“Mamata Banerjee should be allowed to head the INDIA bloc,” the former Bihar chief minister said, overruling objections, if any, from the Congress on the issue of having to take a backseat on the fight with the BJP.

A day before, Sharad Pawar had lent his support, calling Mamata a “capable leader.” Pawar said: “She is a capable leader in the country and has the right to say it. The MPs she has sent to the Parliament are hardworking and aware.”

Lalu’s comment also stood out because a day before, his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had seemed to strike a different note when he underlined the “need to sit together and take a collective decision on choosing a leader”.

A day before Lalu spoke up, Mamata took a U-turn to put the past behind and went to the Raj Bhawan in Calcutta, accepting an invite from the Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose. Sources say that an emissary from the country’s top leadership had paved the way for Mamata to make the move.

Under normal circumstances, another chief minister meeting the governor would be a routine event, but Mamata is a different cup of tea. It was Mamata’s first visit to the Raj Bhawan since August, when following protocol she had attended an event on the eve of Independence day. The move is most unlike the firebrand leader in whose rise the BJP has played a significant role. The BJP as well as Mamata treat the Left specially the CPM as untouchable.   

Since she took oath as the chief minister nearly 14 years ago, Mamata’s ties with the occupants of Raj Bhawan has often been acrimonious and hostile. The ties have worsened and the frequency of the altercations increased as Mamata’s grip on the politics of Bengal tightened, specially after her victory in the 2021 Assembly polls.

This summer, the CM-governor ties hit rock bottom as Bose was accused of molestation by a former employee of the Raj Bhawan. So much so, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, Mamata had called for the governor to step down and announced it was a “sin” to sit with him.

This July, two debut MLAs from the Trinamul, Sayantika Bandyopadhyaya and Rayat Hossain Sarkar, had sat on a dharna demanding they be allowed to take oath in Assembly and not the Raj Bhawan.

In September, Bose had announced a “social boycott” of the chief minister while the protests over the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital raged across the state.

Last week, the same governor conducted the oath-taking ceremony of six new MLAs – all from the Trinamul – without a word of protest from any corner.

An unsual  post also appeared on the Raj Bhawan’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle: “The real friendship is like fluorescence, it shines better when everything has darkened. Even though we may be parted, we remain connected like the branches of a tree that stretch towards each other.”

Indication of the softening of ties between the two is not restricted to the visit alone.

The governor is also reported to have cleared the appointment of six vice-chancellors to different universities of the state, which was one of the main reasons of conflict between the two leaders.

A majority of the files related to the appointment of vice-chancellors, including that of Calcutta University, however, are still pending.

While Raj Bhawan and Mamata might appearing to be inching closer, within the fractious national Opposition alliance, the cracks appear to be widening.

Losses in the back-to-back Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra, states where the Congress had gained ground in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, have once again exposed the chasms with the INDIA bloc.

Last week, in an interaction with a Bengali channel, Mamata had stated that she was open to taking the lead in the Opposition alliance if given a chance.

“I had formed the INDIA bloc, now it is up to those leading the front to manage it,” she had said. “If they can’t run the show, what can I do? I would just say that everyone needs to be taken along.

“If given the opportunity I would ensure its smooth functioning. I don’t want to go outside West Bengal, but I can run it from here,” she had added.

Before the Lok Sabha polls, Mamata had questioned whether the Congress could even bag 50 seats across the country. The grand old party, for the first time in 10 years, stopped at one short of reaching the three-figure mark in the Lok Sabha.

While the Congress leaders admit that Mamata at present is invincible in Bengal like M.K. Stalin in Tamil Nadu, they point out neither of these two leaders and their parties have any presence in electorally crucial north India.

Congress is maintaining a studied silence on the development.

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