TMC to stay away from Congress-led moves against Centre during Winter Session of Parliament

TMC MPs have been asked to continue to attack the BJP government on state and national issues, but avoid coordination with the Congress

The Trinamool Congress is likely to stay away from any coordinated move with the Congress against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party during the Winter Session of Parliament.

Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit New Delhi. She will on Monday attend a meeting convened by the Union Government to brief the leaders of all the political parties about India’s G20 presidency. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the meeting. Banerjee may also have a separate meeting with Modi during her stay.

She is likely to chair a meeting of the Trinamool Congress’s parliamentarians on Wednesday – the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament. The meeting has been convened for discussion on the strategy of the party in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha during the Session.

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The Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs, however, have already received broad guidelines. They, according to the sources in the party, have been asked to continue to attack the Government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on issues of state and national interests, but avoid any coordination with the Congress.

The TMC's policy is likely to help the BJP-led Government, which has planned to introduce 16 new Bills during the Winter Session of Parliament and get seven others passed.

The TMC Rajya Sabha MPs are unlikely to attend any meeting that would be convened by the Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, who has been elected as the president of his party, but is expected to continue as the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House.

Similarly, Banerjee’s MPs in the Lok Sabha are likely to stay away from any coordinated move by the Opposition against the Government, if it is initiated or led by the Congress. Adhir Chowdhury, the president of the West Bengal Congress Committee, leads the grand old party in the lower House of Parliament. Chowdhury has been an arch rival of Banerjee in the political scene in West Bengal and has been very critical of the TMC and its supremo.

Chowdhury had lashed out at Banerjee after she had given a clean-chit to Modi even while criticizing the union Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Amit Shah, and some other “conspiring BJP leaders” for “misusing” the probe agencies like the Directorate of Enforcement or the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for targeting the TMC leaders, including several ministers of her government, and harassing them. He had alleged that Banerjee had been extending an olive branch to Modi “out of desperation” as probes into alleged corruption by several leaders of the TMC had shattered her carefully crafted image of being a politician with honesty and integrity and exposed the reality.

The TMC, according to the sources, will however continue to coordinate with the other Opposition parties in both the Houses, like the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiv Sena. A senior TMC leader said that the party would work shoulder-to-shoulder with other parties, not aligned to the BJP, and raise issues of common people in both Houses of Parliament, but would not let the leadership of the opposition be usurped by the Congress.

Banerjee’s party had followed the same policy during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, staying away from any coordinated move against the government led or initiated by the Congress. It did not attend any meeting of the opposition parties called by the Congress. It, however, protested along with the Congress and the other parties against the suspension of the opposition MPs from the Rajya Sabha.