CALCUTTA, 28 January 2005 — Mamata Banerjee has turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to join his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government citing political compulsions. Breaking her silence yesterday, Mamata said her Trinamool Congress party will contest the crucial Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) elections in mid-2005 without aligning itself with the Congress party.
A few days ago Manmohan offered Mamata a Cabinet berth in the Congress party-led UPA government triggering speculation about her return to the Congress party which she deserted in 1997 to form the Trinamool Congress (TC).
“I am rejecting the PM’s invitation because the UPA government’s survival depends on the Communist Party of India (Marxist) which is my principal adversary in West Bengal. I can’t join hands with any person or party friendly with the CPI(M)”, said Mamata yesterday.
But even as she turned down Manmohan’s offer, Mamata was silent on TC’s tieup with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The TC was a key constituent of the previous BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.
Elections to the TC-run CMC are crucial for TC’s survival which lost seven of the eight West Bengal Lok Sabha seats in the April-May 2004 general elections.
The unprecedented drubbing forced TC to review its alliance with BJP. It also received many feelers from Congress party heavyweights, including Sonia Gandhi and Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Some TC leaders feel that unless the party breaks all links with BJP it will not get a single Muslim vote as is evident from the outcome of last year’s parliamentary elections when TC lost all seats barring Mamata’s Calcutta (South) seat.
Defying Mamata, TC MLAs like Sadhan Pande and Saugata Roy openly say the party must come closer to the Congress if it wants to return to power in CMC.
They feel that the party’s association with the BJP is a big liability. The CPI(M) fully exploited the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in the parliamentary elections and will do so again the CMC polls which TC cannot afford to lose at any cost.
However, Mamata is of the view that the party should try to capture the opposition space in the state left almost vacant by the Congress following its decision to form government at the center with left support.
She believes that the TC can get anti-CPI(M) votes if it remains equidistant from both the BJP and Congress. “Congress has no credentials in the state as a true opposition. What was hidden has come come out in the open”, says Mamata.
