Will Mamata merge TMC with Congress?
Will it be Mamata Banerjee's ghar wapsi? That's the question that is being asked. Mamata created the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after quitting the Congress in
Will it be Mamata Banerjee's ghar wapsi? That's the question that is being asked. Mamata created the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after quitting the Congress in 1997. What wouldn't have even been considered a hypothesis a week ago, is now an intense buzz. But we still prefer to go with a question mark, until anything is confirmed. Will Mamata Banerjee merge her TMC with the Congress? Read Full Story Nothing is unusual in politics. An unusual chain of events has led to the increasing chatter in the media corridors of New Delhi. Consider this. Mamata Banerjee is in New Delhi while she's facing a full-blown rebellion by her MLAs in West Bengal. Her councillors and local leaders are being attacked too. Crisis is in Bengal, but she's in Delhi. Why? Mamata, along with her nephew and TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, attended the INDIA bloc meeting of opposition parties. When was the last time that Mamata attended an INDIA bloc meeting? The TMC, the third-biggest Opposition party with 29 Lok Sabha seats and 12 Rajya Sabha seats, forged its own line of attack against the BJP-led NDA at the Centre. Mamata didn't get along with the Congress-led alliance, so why this bonhomie now? Mamata Banerjee had a one-on-one meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, the first in years. The meeting was reportedly on "the future of the TMC and alliance politics". On Wednesday, Abhishek Banerjee met Rahul Gandhi, the de facto chief of the Congress. Mamata is reported to meet Sonia again on Wednesday. What's about these back-to-back meetings? Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister of West Bengal for 15 consecutive years, and her TMC enjoyed unchallenged rule in West Bengal all that while. The TMC leaders ruled through corruption, coercion, persecution and repression, and the party seemed steel-clad. No amount of storms, it seemed, could do it any damage. Mamata emerged as the undisputed leader of Bengal. So much was her strength within Bengal, that she wanted to play a leading national role through the power of her MPs. But everything changed on May 4. The leader who once seemed unshakeable and the party that was thought to be invincible in Bengal were swept away in a BJP wave. It was as much a vote against Mamata and her TMC as for the BJP. Her over a decade of misrule became her nemesis.
The TMC was reduced to just 80 in Bengal's 294-member Assembly. The rebellion against the leadership, especially Abhishek, was as instantaneous as the public anger that her local leaders faced. Over 100 TMC councillors resigned, Ritabrata Banerjee led over 60 MLAs to become the LoP in the Assembly against Mamata's wishes, and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed the support of over 20 of the party's 28 MPs and pledged support to the BJP-led NDA. Within a month of the election results, Mamata, from being the unquestioned matriarch of the TMC, lost control of the party that she founded in 1998. She started a legal battle in the Calcutta High Court. But going by the precedents of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, she must have known that she didn't have much of a chance. The numbers, both in the legislative party and the parliamentary party, the rebels commanded would have nullified the anti-defection law. However, Bengal LoP Ritabrata Banerjee, who rebelled from the party, threw a spanner amid the merger buzz. He claimed that 64 rebel MLAs and around 20 MPs would not support any move to merge the TMC with the Congress. "Total number of TMC MLAs in rebel camp has increased to 64," said Ritabrata Banerjee. On being asked about the chances of Mamata Banerjee merging the of TMC with Congress, Ritabrata said, "Our MLAs won't, there are 20 MPs who won't merge with the Congress, so who is merging? There is no question of such a merger with the Congress?" So, what is her best option here to prevent the rebels from snatching from her the party she founded three decades ago after quitting Congress? It's a merger with the Congress, suggest many. That way, she might be able to fulfil her aspiration of getting to play a role in national politics, and secure some role for her nephew, Abhishek, who would have otherwise been a castaway. Will Mamata, the forever streetfighter, actually end up merging her TMC with the Congress? Seems very unlikely given her fighting spirit. But this could be the only way out for her, given how embattled she is right now. Will she merge the TMC with the Congress? Nothing can be said till that is actually announced. However, we aren't writing this in the realm of speculation. There has been intense discussion on the subject.
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