New Delhi: Bihar election results have come as a dampener for the Congress and its ally, the Left parties, where the respective leaders are preparing to work out a strategy for at least a re-entry into the 294-member West Bengal Legislative Assembly when the state goes to polls next year. Meanwhile, West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appear heading for another contest largely seen as a direct fight for power.
Since she parted ways from the Congress, Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee has played her political cards deftly, allying with the BJP as per requirement. Her ascent in politics is marked with tactical alternation between the BJP and the Congress. From a toehold began the path to ascendancy – the journey went through early dependence and national-level bargaining to a confident, regional dominance that allowed selective, interest-driven ties rather than permanent alliances.
And then, there were none. The Trinamool assumed absolute control in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, with the two former giants – the Congress and Left Front – reduced to virtual nonentities in state politics. Following frequent clashes with the Congress leadership, Mamata walked out to form the All India Trinamool Congress in January 1998. By then, the only leader in the Congress she trusted, and revered, Rajiv Gandhi, had passed in a brutal assassination in May 1991.
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She locked horns with state leaders, calling them out for being complacent despite alleged atrocities by the ruling Left Front government, especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In fact, she accused them of being compliant with the Marxists, and working against the Congress’ interests in the state. She consolidated herself against both political powers in West Bengal, positioning her party as a regional alternative and became the vehicle for statewide mobilisation.
Her efforts bore fruits with the Trinamool winning seven seats in the 1998 Lok Sabha Elections. Meanwhile, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Mamata accepted tactical cooperation with the NDA at the national level when it served her immediate purpose of wresting influence away from the entrenched Left Front in West Bengal. This was a pragmatic move to gain national visibility and bargaining power for a new regional party.
In the subsequent elections of 1999, Trinamool further consolidated itself, adding one more seat; and the BJP followed suit, winning two this time. However, her interests lay in West Bengal, where she not only needed to consolidate anti-Communist votes but also the minority mandate where the last-held Census of India in 2011 reflected Muslim population at about 27 per cent. In 2001, the Trinamool Congress walked out of the NDA protesting the Tehelka expose over alleged corruption in India’s defence procurement system.
It went on to form an alliance with the Congress for the 2001 Assembly elections in West Bengal where it won about 60 seats, making its presence felt. However, Trinamool was back in the NDA in early 2004, and the move reflected conversely in the Lok Sabha polls where only Mamata could win out of the 29 seats contested by the party. She also faced the consequences of quick shifts with the party losing the Kolkata civic polls in 2005, after upsetting the Left applecart in 2000 with the BJP and the Congress’ support.
In the 2006 Assembly polls, the party failed to form a government despite a massive narrative building up in its favour. As the Trinamool’s profile rose, Mamata began emphasising secular, populist rhetoric and publicly distanced herself from the BJP on issues where it could hurt her mass base in Bengal. Finally, it was with the Congress that she finally stormed the Red bastion in 2011.
But the honeymoon did not last long, giving Mamata and her party absolute control. Many viewed Mamata’s mood shifts and quick turnarounds in words and actions through her political journey as emotive rather than analytic; but it has proved to be the other way round.