 has also made it clear that it will sever its electoral understanding with the Congress if the latter allies itself with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.){kind=link}
The I.N.D.I.A. bloc may implode in West Bengal, with state leaders of the Congress Party adamantly opposing any tie-up with the Trinamool Congress. The Bengal unit of the CPI(M) has also made it clear that it will sever its electoral understanding with the Congress if the latter allies itself with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
Sources say that Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress›s Lok Sabha leader, has already warned the party’s top leadership—Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi—against an alliance with the Trinamool Congress. State leaders have now written to the central leaders expressing their misgivings.
On behalf of the state leaders, Kaustav Bagchi has written to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, listing reasons against any tie-up.
In his letter emailed to Kharge, Kaustav Bagchi listed three reasons, cautioning his party against an alliance with the Trinamool Congress.
“If the Congress tries to form any alliance with the Trinamool Congress, we shall have to take responsibility for all the corruption of Trinamool leaders, against which Congress fought all along,” he said, emphasizing that the Mamata Banerjee-led party is marred by “credible corruption charges.”
The second point raised by the Congress leader is that voters in West Bengal have long perceived that the Congress Party has been “too soft” on the Trinamool.
“Unlike the rest of the country, in West Bengal, politics revolves around the Trinamool Congress. The BJP has gained ground lately because Congress is considered too soft on the Trinamool, the ruling party. At this juncture, if we form an alliance with the Trinamool, the BJP would increase its vote share—being the sole opposition to the Trinamool Congress. The Congress would not have any ground to come back in the 2026 Assembly elections,» he wrote.
The third concern raised by Kaustav Bagchi included the “continuous poaching” of Congress leaders by the Trinamool Congress. This, he said, affects the party in the state. “It is similar to the situation in Telangana under KCR’s rule and in Delhi and Punjab under AAP. So, the common functionaries and supporters do not consider Trinamool Congress a friendly ally. Mamata Banerjee is considered an unjust and ruthless ruler who rigs elections and uses oppressive violent means to suppress opposition,» he said.
“We cannot commit hara-kiri just to honor the spirit of the I.N.D.I.A. coalition,” Koustav Bagchi told The Daily Guardian.
Sources said the misgivings about any tie-up were widespread in the state unit, and the feeling was shared by all leaders “from the top to the bottom.” “Adhir da, despite being the PCC president, has said he is ready to go it alone even if it makes his fight in Berhampore more difficult. He said that he had won elections fighting against the CPM and at times against the TMC and the BJP,” sources told The Daily Guardian.
Recalling the Bengal Assembly polls in 2011, in which Banerjee came to power for the first time with the Congress as an ally, several veteran state Congress leaders, who did not wish to be named, said that the Trinamool had systematically weakened their organization by triggering defections.
“We had to walk out of that first coalition Government. Today, we don’t have a single legislator from Bengal. Our workers are attacked by the ruling party in every election. The Congress and the Left fought together and won the Sagardighi assembly seat, and within months, the Trinamool Congress forced Bayron Biswas, our MLA, to switch over to them. If we join hands with Mamata Banerjee, once again it will be akin to writing the epitaph of the Congress in a State that it once ruled,” said another veteran on condition of anonymity.
AICC member Deepa Das Munshi agreed with Chowdhury about the misgivings regarding an alliance with the Trinamool Congress. Any alliance with the Trinamool Congress would send out the wrong message to the Congress rank and file, she said. Instead, the state unit should strive to strengthen its organization, Das Munshi added.
Observers feel that if the Congress decides to fight a solo battle in Bengal, it is not likely to gain much in terms of winning Lok Sabha seats even in places where it is still a recognizable force. For example, Adhir Chowdhury himself had been trailing in four out of seven assembly segments in his constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.