Is Mamata Banerjee Trying To Subvert The I.N.D.I. Alliance? Tuesday’s Delhi Meet Would Suggest So

Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee created a major flutter at the fourth meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (the I.N.D.I. Alliance) when she suggested that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge be named the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate. 

The suggestion, which was promptly endorsed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, was met by silent disapproval from not only Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, but also the coalition’s PM hopefuls like Nitish Kumar. 

Banerjee’s surprise proposal is also being interpreted as a big snub to Rahul Gandhi who is the Congress’s prime choice for the PM’s post. 

It is well known that Sonia Gandhi wants to put her son and political heir in the PM’s chair in the event of the alliance bagging a majority or near-majority seats in the Lok Sabha polls next year. 

The Bengal CM’s proposal was baffling because just a day ago (Monday), when asked by reporters if the I.N.D.I. Alliance will prop Kharge, a Dalit, as its PM candidate, Banerjee replied that it is “premature to discuss the leadership issue right now”. 

But Karge’s Dalit credentials is exactly what Kejriwal highlighted to support Banerjee’s suggestion the very next day.

“I did some research and can say with confidence that going into elections with a Dalit face will be a huge advantage,” said Kejriwal. 

Incidentally, Banerjee met Kejriwal behind closed doors on Monday and the two are said to have discussed the ‘leadership issue’. The decision to propose Kharge’s name was taken at that meeting. 

Apart from Nitish Kumar, Banerjee’s proposal was also not taken very kindly by Sharad Pawar, Lalu Yadav, M K Stalin and some others. Leaders present at the meeting said that Sonia Gandhi was visibly miffed when Banerjee came up with the proposition. 

Mamata Banerjee’s insistence on setting an unrealistic deadline of 31 December for sealing seat-sharing deals in all states also raised many eyebrows. 

While many Opposition leaders, including those in the Congress, acknowledge that seat-sharing talks between the allies are of utmost importance, setting an unrealistic deadline for such an important and sensitive task amounts to subverting them. 

Banerjee fielded her Rajya Sabha MP, Derek O’Brien, to set the ball rolling on this. And he started off by mocking the Congress. 

“You (the Congress) fought against us in league with the CPI(M), but you were decimated. However, we are large-hearted and will let bygones be bygones. We want seat-sharing talks, which have been inconclusive for the past 179 days, to be completed in the next 12 days,” O’Brien said. 

Mamata Banerjee nodded vigorously in agreement and repeated that seat-sharing agreements be stitched by 31 December. 

The Trinamool chief, however, does not appear to be serious about such a deal. That’s because she has let it be known that she is willing to give only two of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal to the Congress. And none to the CPI(M)-led Left Front. 

The Congress, which is eyeing at least six to seven seats in Bengal and wants its Left ally to be given at least three seats, is sure to reject what Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Choudhry has termed a “humiliating offer”. 

Banerjee’s unsettling proposals and demands had their desired ‘effect’: the meeting ended on a sour note.

That was amply evident with a host of leaders — M K Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray and Jayant Choudhury (president of Rashtriya Lok Dal), besides Mamata Banerjee, her nephew Abhishek and Derek O’Brien — leaving the meeting without staying back for the press conference. 

Is the Bengal CM trying to subvert the I.N.D.I. Alliance from within? If so, with what intent? These questions are being avidly discussed in political circles in Delhi.