Kolkata, May 13: The Congress Party and Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) combine humbled the mighty Communists in West Bengal last year. A year later, the national allies are now rivals once again for the Kolkata municipal corporation polls.
But many say the polls are a survival test for the Congress ahead of 2011 Assembly polls. If failed, it could always go back to the Trinamool, though the terms could be humiliating.
If Congress succeeds, it will have an edge for the state elections. And Congress stalwart and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee set the tune on Tuesday
Mukherjee said, “We only go for all alliance when it strengthens the party not otherwise, so we can not tie up with the National Congress Party (NCP) and wind up our party in Maharashtra or Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) in south.”
Mamata however showed restraint. Sticking to her strategy of staying away from publicly bashing the Congress, all she did was make an oblique reference to her ally and held it responsible for dividing anti-left forces. And true to her maverick spirit, Mamata suggested she alone would have a majority in the upcoming municipal polls.
Mamata Banerjee said, “if we win, then the Assembly elections will be held in the next 3 months.”
That’s something the left in Bengal will be extremely wary off. Though at the moment, it is counting on the divided opposition votes to regain lost ground in the urban pockets of state.
—Agencies