Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday found herself rejected as a potential ally against the state’s first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government by all other opposition parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress.
“Absolutely not. We will not accept anyone identified as criminal, extortionist, corrupt and communal. We will stand by the people and the marginal population,” CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim said in reply to the proposal Banerjee made on Saturday although his party is not in power in any Indian state for the first time in 49 years, having lost the Kerala polls.
On Saturday, when BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as chief minister and five other MLAs took the oath as ministers in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Banerjee released a video message urging opposition parties to unite against the BJP.
“I urge all opposition parties in Bengal, student organisations and NGOs to unite against the BJP...Along with the national parties, I urge the Leftists and the ultra-Leftists to unite in Bengal as well as in Delhi. If any political party wants to speak to me, I am available. It must be remembered that our first enemy is the BJP,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“I urge all opposition parties in Bengal, student organisations and NGOs to unite against the BJP...Along with the national parties, I urge the Leftists and the ultra-Leftists to unite in Bengal as well as in Delhi. If any political party wants to speak to me, I am available. It must be remembered that our first enemy is the BJP,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}State Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy said, “We can’t believe our ears. You (Banerjee) invited national parties, indicating the Congress, Left and the ultra-Left to join you. What do you mean by ultra-Left? Do you mean the Maoists, who killed 18 Congress leaders and workers in Chhattisgarh on May 25, 2013?”
Reacting to her statement, CM Adhikari said, “She is irrelevant in politics.”
In the recent polls, the BJP won 207 of 294 seats against the TMC’s 80. The Congress and the Left Front secured only two and one seat respectively. Having failed to win any seat in the last 2021 polls, the Left and Congress did not contest as allies this year.
Roy referred to the alliance of 13 parties, including the Congress and Left Front, that contested against the TMC in the 2016 Bengal assembly polls and secured 77 seats.
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“Congress is fighting the BJP across India. When we formed an alliance in 2016 you called us names. You carried out a vilification campaign against us even in the recent polls. All these years, you made every effort to wipe us out and thus widen the road for BJP. Now you want us beside you?” Roy added.
Communist Party of India (CPI) state secretary Swapan Banerjee said, “The question of joining forces with Banerjee doesn’t arise. Democracy was in peril during her regime. Her mindset is so authoritarian that she did not resign as CM after her defeat.”
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Although not a part of the West Bengal Left Front, the CPI-M (Liberation) contested the recent polls as its ally but could not win any seat. The party’s state secretary Abhijit Majumdar said, “Mamata Banerjee was always a Rightist leader and represented a repressive government. Left forces have to unite and prepare for a bigger battle.”
TMC appointed veteran Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the winner from Kolkata’s Ballygunge, as leader of the opposition in the assembly; Asima Patra and Nayna Bandopadhyay (wife of Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandopadhyay) as deputy leaders; and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim as the chief whip.