Now the drama has already been started with Subrata Mukherjee. He was Information & Cultural Minister of West Bengal during the black days of Internal Emergency promulgated by the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi. Since 1977 till today, CPI(M)-led Left Front is ruling the state and Subrata Mukherjee is hopping between two parties i.e. Indian National Congress (INC) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) during this whole period.
But surprisingly enough, Biman Basu, secretary of the ruling Left Front, when asked for reaction told the reporters, “I have asked my cadres not to be misled by this type of gimmick, because this is nothing but a ‘got-up game’ of two alliance partners i.e. TMC and INC.” On the other hand, senior RSP leader and PWD minister in the state LF government Kshiti Goswami said that although the alliance of INC and TMC has broken, but it would not result in the form of division of opposition votes to the advantage of Left Front.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front is running the government for more than 32 years and till date no opposition party or conglomerate of opposition parties could dislodge them. But since the spontaneous upsurge against the ruling Left Front at Nandigram (district of Midnapur), where merciless killing of innocent people by the CPI(M) goons had destroyed the patience level of the civil society and for this the ruling party had to go on back foot.
This was an opportunity for all opposition political parties to take advantage of the situation. In the last Lok Sabha election, Left Front had to accept a thorough defeat at the hands of TMC-INC coalition. The LF had won only 15 seats among a total of 42 LS seats, whereas TMC had got 19 seats which was a big jump and with this power in hand TMC is dictating terms in the UPA government for the simple reason that without the support of TMC the UPA government will become minority.
On the other hand, since the last LS election CPI(M) or for that matter the Left Front has been experiencing defeat after defeat in almost all elections right from school boards, managing committees of rural co-operatives, student unions in schools and colleges to panchayats and assembly bye elections. Now, in the month of May, they are going to face the elections in 81 municipalities including Kolkata Municipal Corporation. This is going to be an acid test for them.
It is useless to argue that if Congress was not there TMC could not have won 19 seats in Lok Sabha poll. Even retaining 11 seats would have been impossible on their own. NDA or for that matter BJP had already burnt their fingers for making alliance with Mamata. At this juncture Congress had no other option except to support Mamataji and agree to whatever condition she put forward. Keeping Pranab Mukherjee in the forefront, both Ms. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh are busy in formulating a face-saving mode. Unfortunately all these efforts have failed for whatever reason one can imagine.