Mamata, Congress row escalates

The timing of Mamata Banerjee’s aggressive stance vis-à-vis the Congress appears to be the outcome of a dilemma she faces regarding the leadership of the collective opposition in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The question before her was to either wait for the results of the 2022 Assembly polls which include both UP in the earlier part, and Gujarat towards the end of the year, or to throw her hat in the ring now to make her intentions clear.
In politics, the delay in expressing one’s ambition often allows for circumstances to build which can thwart well laid out plans, and this appears to be the reason why she is eager to take the Congress head on, by launching a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi.
However, while attempting to expand the base of her own Trinamool Congress, she seems to forget that it is not going to be an easy task to dismantle the grand old party which has a foothold in every nook and corner of the country, notwithstanding the fact that it has been losing one major election after the other.
Sharad Pawar had tried to decimate the Congress in Maharashtra but could not succeed. The BJP has been similarly trying to make Bharat “Congress Mukt”, but though it has marginalized the party in many states, with the help of former Congress leaders, it has still not been able to demolish the party completely.
The short point is that the Congress cannot be wished away since it has far greater number of MPs and MLAs in this country than any other Opposition outfit. The BJP has been in power for seven and a half years at the Centre and despite being the largest political organization in the world, has not been able to find space in several states of the country.
On the other hand, the Congress due to historic reasons has its supporters, even if their number has been dwindling all over India. It has been unsuccessful in posing any kind of stiff challenge to the BJP, but it represents a certain ideological stream that finds resonance with a number of people. Yes, the Congress has a leadership crisis going on since many within the party also do not believe that Rahul Gandhi has it in him to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite being amongst the few leaders who have been consistent in their attacks on the BJP leadership.
That is the primary reason why Mamata has tried to take a dig at Rahul by stating that politics was a continuous process and one cannot be abroad most of the time and think that politics can be run from there.
The most vicious but truthful comment has come from a senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who recently stated that he did not think that it would be possible for his party to get 300 seats in the 2024 polls. In other words, he ruled it out under the present conditions, and has sent a strong signal to his colleagues to prepare themselves for a battle both within and outside the party.
If Mamata has chosen the present timing to unsettle the Congress leadership, it is because she realises that those who are advising Rahul and the party’s high command lack the gravitas. However, she should also simultaneously review her unflinching belief in the capabilities of her own political strategist, Prashant Kishor, whose political agenda remains unclear.
This is a fact that he has served as an adviser to Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Amarinder Singh, Nitish Kumar, Jagan Mohan Reddy and a host of others but surely politicians who have been in the field for decades, should be able to recognize the situation as it exists at the grass roots level. Mamata is a fighter and has delivered on the ground. She should realise that seasoned politicians do not have to see the reality from the prism of a strategist whose own ideological inclinations are questionable.
When Mamata claimed that Sharad Pawar concurred with her that there was no UPA any longer, she must remember that the Maharashtra strongman can be very deceptive also. He has his own ambitions as well and he cannot afford to offend the Congress, given that by doing so, he may put into jeopardy the future of the Maharashtra government.
In July 2003, when Sonia Gandhi gave a call from Shimla to like-minded parties to help in dislodging the NDA government, she had the likes of Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh and Makhan Lal Fotedar by her side to navigate the political course. There is no one of that stature who is advising the leadership, though there are a large number of capable Congress leaders still with the party.
After the NDA lost and Sonia Gandhi declined to lead the UPA government, a point similar to the one made by Prashant Kishor was stated by Lalu Prasad Yadav that the alliance should elect the leader, who would be the Prime Minister. Fotedar had snubbed him while reiterating that the prerogative of choosing the leader rested only with the Congress.
Therefore, it would not be easy for anyone to dislodge the Congress as the fulcrum of the Opposition challenge unless, in the game of numbers, there is a further slide in 2024 and Mamata has more MPs than any other outfit opposed to the BJP. She has the fire in her belly and must know that politics remains a tricky game, where the best do not always win. Between us.