How The Congress ‘High Command’ Bent Over Backwards To Woo Mamata Banerjee

Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee’s earlier decision to skip the first day of the two-day Opposition meet at Bengaluru threw the anti-BJP camp into a tizzy.

Banerjee cited her medical condition--she had suffered a ligament injury in her right knee late last month and underwent a microsurgery on July 6--for her inability to attend the first day of the Opposition conclave on Monday (July 17). 

She conveyed this decision to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday (July 15) evening. 

According to senior Trinamool leaders, Banerjee said that she had been advised complete bed rest by doctors. Also, she reportedly reasoned, since Monday’s meeting was an informal one to be followed by a dinner hosted by Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, she would fly to Bengaluru on Tuesday to attend that day’s proceedings which would be much more important. 

But both Nitish Kumar and Kharge sensed that something was amiss. Their enquiries with senior Trinamool leaders revealed that the Trinamool chairperson was peeved with the barrage of criticism directed at her by Congress and CPI(M) leaders in Bengal. 

Banerjee was also wary of Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi, with whom she enjoys a warm rapport, cajoling her into conceding a good number of seats to the Congress-Left alliance in Bengal (read this) at Monday’s informal setting. 

Kumar and Kharge realised that Banerjee’s absence from the first day of the meet would rob the Opposition conclave of a lot of significance because the Bengal Chief Minister is one of the most voluble voices against the BJP.

Banerjee’s absence on Monday, the Congress and JD(U) leaders realised, would also give the BJP a chance to ridicule the Opposition conclave and highlight the differences that exist between the Opposition parties. 

So they set about getting Mamata Banerjee to change her mind. Multiple calls were made to Banerjee on Sunday morning by Nitish Kumar, Kharge and Congress leaders like Kapil Sibal who share a good bond with Banerjee. 

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav was also roped in to placate Mamata Banerjee. Nitish Kumar, Lalu Yadav and the Congress leaders promised Mamata Banerjee that she would be given a key role in the anti-BJP front and nothing would be done without her express concurrence. 

Lalu Yadav also promised Mamata Banerjee that he would get the Congress High Command to ask Congress leaders in Bengal to pipe down their criticism of Mamata Banerjee. He would also do the same with the CPI(M) leadership. 

All the leaders told Mamata Banerjee that Opposition unity was paramount and forging an anti-BJP alliance should trump over all other considerations. 

Banerjee, who was sulking till then, was happy at her ego having been massaged. And she soon agreed to fly down to Bengaluru, her nephew and heir apparent Abhishek in tow, Monday morning. 

Kharge, Lalu Yadav and others who intervened with Mamata Banerjee told Sonia Gandhi that the Bengal Chief Minister must be kept happy. That meant giving her pride of place at Bengaluru and crediting her with important developments. 

Sonia Gandhi also assured Lalu Yadav that she would not raise the seat-sharing issue with  Mamata Banerjee at Bengaluru.

Co-Chairing Monday’s Meeting:

Mamata Banerjee was, thus, made to co-chair of the Opposition meeting Monday along with Sonia Gandhi. That honour was not accorded to any other chief minister present--Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab’s Bhagwant Singh Mann, Tamil Nadu’s M.K.Stalin or Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah. 

Granting the honour of co-chairing Monday’s meeting to Mamata Banerjee along with Sonia Gandhi by the Congress leadership holds tremendous significance. Never in the past has any other politician--within the Congress or outside--been accorded equal importance as Sonia Gandhi.

Even when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, all Congress leaders (as well as Singh himself) used to defer to Sonia Gandhi. The Congress has always deified Sonia Gandhi and put her on a high pedestal. 

To the Congress, all other leaders--Congress and non-Congress--are eternally placed below Sonia Gandhi who, the Congress believes, is the prima donna of Indian politics. 

Thus, agreeing to place Mamata Banerjee on the same pedestal as Sonia Gandhi is a notable climbdown for the Congress leadership.

This climbdown was deliberate since Mamata Banerjee had been vocal in rejecting the primacy that has always been accorded to the Congress and its leadership at the national level. 

Banerjee had made it clear on many occasions in the past that she will not defer to any Congress leader since she heads the second largest Opposition party in Parliament and has been the most vocal critic of the BJP. 

She has also asserted on many occasions to leaders of the Congress and other Opposition parties that the Trinamool, and not the Congress, has fire in its belly to fight the BJP. And, hence, she should be accorded due respect.

Mamata Banerjee had also made it known that she will not agree to the Congress being given a leadership role in the anti-BJP front. 

The Congress ‘high command’, which has behaved quite imperiously till now, seems to have been humbled by Mamata Banerjee.  

Asking Congress and CPI(M) To Desist from Criticising Mamata Banerjee:

Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar, M.K.Stalin and Sharad Pawar are learnt to have told Sonia Gandhi and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury that their party leaders in Bengal should be asked to desist from criticising Mamata Banerjee. 

Yadav and Pawar emphasised that “small sacrifices” need to be made by all parties for the larger goal of forging Opposition unity. If that means issuing gag orders on Congress and CPI(M) leaders in Bengal, who have been bearing the brunt of the Trinamool’s depredations, so be it. 

It is learnt that Yechury and Rahul Gandhi told the leaders of other parties who were intervening on behalf of Mamata Banerjee that Banerjee should also be asked to rein in her murderous cadres and stop the attacks on Congress and Left workers. 

Lalu Yadav assured Yechury and Rahul Gandhi that they would convey their concerns and demands to Banerjee. 

While Rahul Gandhi accepted the assurance, Yechury asserted that his colleagues in Bengal reserved the right to criticise Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool for their “misdeeds”, including “largescale corruption”. 

Lalu Yadav is then learnt to have told Yechury that for the sake of greater Opposition unity, it is important to swallow a bitter pill. He requested Yechury to ask his party’s leaders in Bengal to exercise restraint at least till the Parliamentary elections next year. 

Later, Lalu Yadav told Rahul Gandhi in Mamata Banerjee’s presence that Congress leaders in Bengal should be asked to stop criticising Didi. 

“Tell your partymen in Bengal to stop attacking Didi. What they’re doing is not right,” Yadav told Rahul Gandhi. The latter is said to have nodded grimly while Mamata Banerjee smiled. 

Allowing Mamata Banerjee To Share Credit For ‘I.N.D.I.A’ Acronym:

The most important concession granted to Banerjee was allowing her to share credit for coining the ‘I.N.D.I.A’ (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance). 

It is widely acknowledged that Rahul Gandhi coined the acronym, even though the ‘D’ in his coinage stood for ‘Democratic’ till it was changed to ‘Developmental’ in order to mark a distinction from the NDA. 

Rahul Gandhi, it is learnt, came up with the coinage at Monday’s informal confabulations among Opposition leaders. While various names for the anti-BJP front were being bandied about, Gandhi suggested that the Opposition front be named ‘INDIA’. The suggestion found instant favour with many. (Although Opposition sources say that it was one of his aides who suggested the acronym). 

That aside, the Congress ‘high command’ that was eager to please Mamata Banerjee agreed to a suggestion by Lalu Yadav that the Trinamool chief be allowed to take credit for the coinage. 

As Lalu Yadav put it, “unseating the BJP from power is more important than taking credit for a name”. “What’s in a name?” Yadav is said to have concluded in his trademark style. 

During the discussions Tuesday (July 18), it was decided that Mamata Banerjee should be allowed to formally propose the name at the press conference at the end of the two-day conclave.

Banerjee was highly pleased and a few Trinamool leaders even told some of their ‘favourite’ reporters that it was their party chairperson who had coined the acronym. The Congress did not mind, and that in itself is indicative of the desperation by the Opposition to defeat the BJP. 

Seating Arrangements:

Prime importance was reserved for Mamata Banerjee, to the chagrin of other non-Congress leaders and Chief Ministers. 

At the informal meet Monday, Banerjee was invited to sit next to Sonia Gandhi. The next day, she was seated between Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. At all other times, she was seated next to one of the two Gandhis. 

That, say Opposition sources, was done deliberately. It is common knowledge that the focus of all camera persons would be the two Gandhis and leaders sitting next to them would also get to hog the limelight by default.  

Thus, unlike the conclave in Patna where Mamata Banerjee was missing from many photos of the conclave published in newspapers and posted on social media, this time she was ubiquitous. 

That, for Mamata Banerjee, is important. And being seated next to Sonia Gandhi meant a lot to her since it portrayed her primacy among leaders of non-Congress parties. 

The Trinamool chief was floored by all the attention and importance accorded to her, and had a dramatic change of heart towards Rahul Gandhi. 

Till recently, she had little regard for the junior Gandhi and used to consider him a novice. But at the press meet Tuesday, she referred to him as “our favourite Rahul Gandhi”. 

The Congress high command’s charm offensive has, apparently, worked. But how long it will last is a moot question.

While Congress leaders in Bengal are unlikely to obey a gag order for long, other non-Congress chief ministers who harbour ambitions similar to Mamata Banerjee will resent the primacy accorded to her. 

Also read: Bad news for Opposition unity: Banerjee hardens stand against conceding seats to Left and Congress in Bengal