Will TMC, Congress join forces to counter BJP in West Bengal?

The selection of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as the state Congress president in West Bengal has raised the question of whether the grand old party’s political compulsion at the national level for which it appears to be once again warming up to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) will clash with its interests in state politics.

Chowdhury, known to be a bitter critic of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, has become the state Congress president at a time when the bonhomie between Sonia Gandhi and the Chief Minister has given rise to speculations whether the former alliance partners will once again join forces.

Although there will be nothing surprising if the Congress chief decides to once again join forces with TMC to keep BJP at bay but with Chowdhury as the state president, any such decision will face stiff opposition from the state unit. He has repeatedly made it clear that he is not in favour of any kind of alliance with the TMC. Moreover, Chowdhury is keen on once again joining forces with Mamata’s arch-rival the CPI(M) and the Left Front.

This brings us to the issue of how Congress high command takes decisions with regard to the Bengal unit. In the past, the High Command’s decisions taken with an eye on the party’s compulsions at the national level has put the state unit in a spot. For instance in 2004 when the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre was supported by the CPI(M) the High Command needed to keep the Bengal-Congress anti-CPI(M) line in check to save its government at the Centre.

Ironically within a couple of years, the CPI(M)-led Left Front started to show signs of weakening mainly due to the land agitation by Mamata following the incident of police firing in Nandigram in 2007 which killed at least 14 people. At that time Congress would have benefited in Bengal if it joined forces with the TMC but it could not be done due to the party’s compulsions at the national level.

Now when there are indications that Sonia Gandhi is keen on joining forces with TMC to counter BJP the state Congress led by Chowdhury may once again end up in limbo.