WB Cong in a spot with Sonia-Mamata closeness over CAA

The closeness between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) issue has put Bengal Congress in a spot. Congress sources revealed that a section of party leaders are worried that this will have an adverse effect on its alliance with the Left Front.

They further revealed that even though both Congress and TMC are against the CAA, but at the state level the ruling party in Bengal is still a “bitter enemy” of Congress.

“A section of the state leaders are apprehensive that party president Sonia Gandhi’s positive response to Mamata Banerjee’s call for joining forces against BJP over CAA will put a question mark on the state leadership’s anti-TMC stand,” said a senior state Congress leader.

The fact that the TMC supremo shared the dais with Sonia Gandhi at the swearing in ceremony of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has also put the Bengal Congress leaders in a spot. They are apprehensive that it will not go down well with their alliance partner in Bengal the Left Front.

“This may put our political credibility at stake and a question mark on our opposition to TMC,” said the state Congress leader.

He also that as former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was often critical of TMC and often strongly reacted to its use of defection tactics against his party in Bengal it lent credibility to their opposition against Banerjee.

Taking a step ahead from their undeclared alliance in the 2016 Assembly elections Congress and Left Front tried to officially join forces in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but the seat sharing negotiations fell through. However, the two sides officially formed an alliance in the recent Assembly by-elections ending up drawing a blank.