Barely weeks before the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal chief minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee’s hardline stance regarding seat-sharing with her I.N.D.I.A. partners has pushed the Congress closer to the CPIM. Many expressed surprise at the way the State Administration under the West Bengal Chief Minister systematically went about creating hurdles in the path of Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra.
The yatra faced obstacles throughout its journey in West Bengal including vandalism of multiple posters and decorations welcoming Gandhi in the State. The lack of cooperation from the State administration was underlined when it rejected the Congress party’s appeal to let Gandhi have lunch at a Government guest house in Malda, citing Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the town as an excuse.
But what took many by surprise was the enthusiasm with which the CPIM joined the Congress.
Senior CPIM members Md Salim, Sujan Chakraborty and other leaders joined Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra in north Bengal even as the West Bengal Police (Mamata overseas the police department as the Home Minister) continually put up obstacles and even refused permission for Rahul’s last day’s rally at Birbhum.
The Congress’s tricolour and the CPIM’s hammer and sickle flag waved together even as no Trinamool Congress flag could be seen during Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow. CPIM supporters were seen carrying the party’s red flags and shouting slogans for Rahul.
The CPIM’s West Bengal state secretary Mohammed Salim and its central committee member Sujan Chakraborty joined the rally at Baharampur. “We have joined the Yatra to be a part of the fight for justice,” Chakraborty said.
The CPIM leader also accused Banerjee of trying to weaken the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. “Many people board a train from the originating station, but one cannot say who will continue to be part of the fight against the BJP. Mamata Banerjee wants to leave the train now, and we welcome it.”
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee continued to take swipes at Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party even as Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh kept on making placatory comments on Mamata. “It would be wrong to say that the Trinamool did not join the Nyay Yatra. In Jalpaiguri, I myself saw a person who was holding Mamata ji’s poster, joining the yatra,” he told a press conference.
However, Mamata Banerjee was in no mood to reciprocate and she launched a scathing attack on the Congress. She publicly said that she has her doubts if the party would win “even 40 seats” in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Banerjee accused the Congress of “arrogance” and lashed out at the party for not informing her, even though she was an I.N.D.I.A. constituent, about the yatra which was to cover her State. “I came to know about the yatra from the administration”. “Why this arrogance?” she asked.
She also took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi. Referring to the Congress leader-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s Bengal leg wherein the Congress leader was seen interacting with “beedi” workers, Mamata Banerjee said, “Now a new style has surfaced… of a photo shoot. Those who have never gone to a tea shop now show that they sit with beedi workers. They are all migratory birds.”
In the video shared on Congress’s official handle on X, formerly Twitter, Rahul Gandhi was seen seated with a group of beedi workers, mostly women. He was seen engaging in a conversation regarding their revenue and trade.
Rahul Gandhi interacted with beedi workers at Dhulian, a crucial voter demographic in Murshidabad and listened to their concerns. There are about 17 lakh beedi workers in the district – mostly concentrated in Jangipur region – a seat that the Congress is eyeing to regain. Gandhi promised to personally address the plight of women beedi workers if the anti-BJP alliance comes to power.
The bonhomie between the Congress and the CPIM drew caustic comments from Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.
“The joint campaign of the Congress and the CPIM is shameful. The CPIM has forgotten how hundreds of its workers were brutally murdered by the Congress regime till 1977. The Congress too has forgotten how the CPIM systematically killed hundreds of Congressmen after Jyoti Basu came to power. Mamata Banerjee became Mamata Banerjee because she did not forget the sacrifices of her partymen, and today the Trinamool Congress is the actual party. The rest are all opportunists and imposters,” he told The Sunday Guardian.