Kolkata, 30 April (). West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar held a crucial meeting on April 24 to clear the way for an anti-BJP grand alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Now questions are being raised in the political circles of the state regarding the meeting.
The first question is whether Nitish Kumar was purposely appointed to forge an understanding with the Trinamool Congress supremo, given that Mamata Banerjee’s party leadership has already made it clear that they are equidistant from the BJP and the Congress. Will maintain and instead try to develop understanding among all the regional parties of the country.
The second question is to what extent Nitish Kumar will be able to bring the Congress and Trinamool leadership on a single platform. The answer to this question remained unanswered at the joint press conference on 24 April, which was attended by Banerjee, Kumar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
That day when some media persons questioned about the position of Congress in the opposition coalition model, Mamata Banerjee stopped those journalists and said that the media need not bother about it.
Mamta Banerjee said that day, you don’t need to think about all these things. We will be together. The people of the country will fight against the BJP. All parties will run together. During the press conference, the Chief Ministers of both the states emphasized that all the opposition parties will have to shed their arrogance to work unitedly in their joint move against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Actually, since the beginning, the thinking of Banerjee and Kumar has been different regarding this Grand Alliance. While on one hand Nitish Kumar is maintaining close coordination with top Congress leaders including Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge in this matter, Trinamool Congress is keeping distance from the oldest national party of the country.
Political observers say that here the question becomes more relevant whether Kumar will finally be able to bring the two forces together. They point out that both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have some points of contention in this matter, which does not really paint a good picture of the two forces coming on the same platform, at least in the pre-poll scenario.
According to veteran political observer and analyst Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, since pre-poll alliances always come with seat-sharing agreements, in the case of West Bengal the Trinamool Congress could win even one seat out of 42 Lok Sabha seats for the Congress or any other party. Giving up is almost impossible.
Mamata Banerjee aims to garner maximum presence in the lower house of Parliament and is well aware that West Bengal is the only state where she will get seats. Bandopadhyay said this is the reason why she, along with other regional parties, is insisting on the choice of the Leader of the Opposition only after the elections. Therefore, from the point of view of Trinamool Congress, this is a major obstacle to an amicable understanding with the Congress.
Bandopadhyay said, from the point of view of the Congress, especially from the party’s West Bengal unit, opting for an amicable understanding with the Trinamool Congress will not be an easy task. The Trinamool disagrees with the present understanding of the Congress with the CPI(M)-led Left Front.
Bandhopadhyay said the recently concluded by-polls for the minority-dominated Sagardighi assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, where the Left Front-backed Congress candidate won with a thumping majority, prompted the two parties to take forward the understanding leading up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. got more excited. At the same time, the Congress would be in a position to negotiate a seat-sharing deal with the Left Front rather than the Trinamool Congress. Therefore, according to the logic of the Congress, accepting the Trinamool Congress as a partner would not be so easy.
However, political analyst and columnist Amal does not agree that the Sagardighi bypoll results can be the ultimate indicator of Congress-Left equations for all time.
The CPI(M) or the Left Front being an organized force can always rally their traditional voters behind the Congress candidate under the alliance formula. But can the Congress leadership achieve the same mobilization of its dedicated voters in support of the Left Front candidate? Therefore, it cannot be said with certainty that the success of the Sagardighi model will be the only factor that will ensure a Congress-Left Front understanding by 2024.
According to Amal, the performance of the BJP, Trinamool and Left-Congress alliance in the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections will be an important indicator for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
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