Minhaj Merchant’s column: A setback to the national ambitions of Congress and TMC
If the opposition wants to challenge the BJP in any way in 2024, then Congress and TMC will have to play a central role in it. Chances are that these two parties will win the maximum number of seats from the opposition side. But when Mamata came to New Delhi in support of an anti-BJP alliance, Rahul Gandhi did not meet her. Rahul’s unfavorable attitude has put a question mark on a possible Congress-TMC alliance.
Here Mamta is trying to keep herself away from the corruption of her former minister Partha Chatterjee, but everyone in Bengal knows that without Mamta’s consent there is no leaf. This scam has put a dent on Mamata’s simple image, which she had fabricated. She wears a white cotton saree, lives in a small house and has a simple lifestyle. But the wealth that the ED got from the house of Arpita, a close aide of Chatterjee, is arguably party-funds, which were kept in ‘safe’ places.
Mamata has been accused of inciting political violence and rampant corruption ever since she became the chief minister in 2011. The investigation of Saradha scam is still going on. Many TMC leaders are in its circle. But the SSC scam involving Partha Chatterjee and Arpita started in 2016 when Chatterjee was made education minister by Mamata. This scam could take a toll on Mamata’s national ambitions. Mamta has been brushing aside the allegations made in the past.
He also distanced himself from the case of violence against BJP workers by TMC cadre. After that violence after the Bengal election results, when the BJP high command also adopted a casual attitude on the killings of its workers, it raised the spirits of Mamta. In fact, Bengal has been a hotbed of political violence ever since the Left parties came to power in 1977.
Targeted killings of political opponents were common during the 34-year rule of the Left. But TMC has taken this culture of bloodshed to another level. After the victory of 2021, Mamta had a national ambition in her mind, but now her image has been tarnished. The aspirations of winning 35 seats from Bengal in 2024 are starting to cool down. And what about Rahul? Where Modi and Shah are round-the-clock politicians, Rahul appears to be a part-timer. He occasionally makes cameo appearances in Parliament.
Senior Congress leaders are moving away from the party. Its power has remained in only two states. Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra also got out of hand. Rahul knows that it will be difficult for Congress to win 50 seats in 2024. In 2019 too, out of 52 seats won by it, 15 were from Kerala alone. Congress contested the assembly elections in UP under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi. Their enthusiasm has also cooled down due to the crushing defeat.
Under Priyanka’s leadership, the vote-share of the Congress had come down from 6.25 to 2.33. In fact, there are three centers in Indian politics today. On one side there is almost invincible BJP. On the other hand there are regional satraps like KCR, Jagan Reddy, MK Stalin, Naveen Patnaik, whose allegiance is not to anyone except their jagirs. Congress is the third axis, but the UPA is falling apart.
Under the leadership of Sharad Pawar, the opposition had made a strategy that an alliance would be formed by joining the UPA, TMC and regional leaders, but after the Maharashtra accident, these spirits have also been defeated. The only message sent to the country was that when an unformed coalition could not save power in one state, how could the whole country remain united?
