Mission 2024: West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee on Monday made a big statement which will have a huge implication on the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2024. "Wherever Congress is strong, we will support it," asserted Banerjee in a surprise move. Until now, Banerjee had hinted that her party will vouch for formation of 'Third Front' or TMC will go solo in the General Election slated to take place in 2024.
"Wherever the Congress is strong, let them fight. We will give them support, there is nothing wrong (in that). But they have to support other political parties also," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat. However, to get support, Congress also has to back other parties, she said. The TMC supremo also made it clear that she expected the seat-sharing formula to give priority to regional players in areas where they were strong. "Strong regional parties must be given priority," she said.
Decoding her U-turn
The timing of a surprise change of heart suggests that Congress's landslide victory in Karnataka compelled Banerjee to give a second thought to her earlier stand to keep distance from the grand old party. In Karnataka, Congress proved that it can defeat BJP in a direct fight with the saffron party.
Impact of Karnataka victory
The Karnataka electoral results are the "beginning of the end" for BJP, Banerjee claimed on Saturday. Banerjee also asserted the moral of the Karnataka assembly poll results is that people "want plurality" and that "no central design to dominate" can repress them. Adding for good measure, she said that the poll results were a "lesson for tomorrow", implying the 2024 Parliamentary polls.
Her party also took a swipe at BJP’s “double engine” rhetoric of the benefits of having the same party rule both at the centre and in the state, a claim TMC had to fight against during elections to Bengal's assembly in 2021, and quipped that the people of Karnataka had rejected the “trouble engine” government.
Congratulating the people of Karnataka for their mandate in favour of change, Banerjee said that “brute authoritarian and majoritarian” politics has been vanquished.
She forecast that the safforn party would lose in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh too, where it faces off with the Congress, which steamrolled the BJP in Karnataka in results announced on Saturday.
"This is the beginning of the end of the BJP before 2024 Lok Sabha polls. People have voted against the arrogance and intolerance of the BJP, the TMC leader said.
"I think the saffron party will also lose the upcoming elections in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh," Banerjee told newspersons gathered in front of her house, after seeing off actor Salman Khan who had come to pay her a visit. As late as March this year, the fiery TMC chief had said she would maintain equidistance from both the BJP and Congress only to change her stance somewhat after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP.
Nitish Kumar on mission 2024
After a meeting with JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar last month, Banerjee had formally announced she would be part of a united opposition, including the Congress, which would challenge the BJP in 2024.
Her comments on Saturday are being seen not only as a strong attack on the BJP, but an indirect endorsement of the Congress, as it will take on the saffron party in the other major state elections – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan - before the Parliamentary elections in 2024.
However, her party which will be facing an electoral test within the next few months in elections to panchayats in all villages and districts of Bengal remained anxious to project itself as the main opposition to BJP at least within the state and to downplay the Congress to that extent.
When asked about the Congress’s performance in the polls, her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said the people of Karnataka chose the "most viable" alternative to the BJP.
“We have been saying for a long time that a one-to-one fight formula is needed to defeat the BJP. In Karnataka, the people defeated the party, putting up a fight against the BJP. In West Bengal, the TMC is the only force fighting against the BJP,” he stressed.
Abhishek also quipped on behalf of his party that the people rejected the “trouble-engine” government of the saffron camp.
“It is a victory for the people of that state. It is the defeat of the BJP top brass,” he said.
The continuing rivalry between Congress and TMC was also evident with the latter party’s spokesperson Kunal Ghosh telling reporters that Congress might have won in Karnataka, but its role in Bengal remained questionable "as it is aligned with the Left to oppose the TMC and, in turn, help the BJP".
In the Congress camp in Bengal there were celebrations. As the results of the May 10 election came in, hundreds of Congress activists waving party flags gathered at the state party headquarters Bidhan Bhavan in the city.
They hugged each other, smeared 'gulal', beat drums, while boisterous supporters shouted slogans of 'Rahul Gandhi Zindabad', 'Sonia Gandhi Zindabad' and 'BJP dur hato' to celebrate Congress' convincing victory win in the southern state, which was the only southern state to have voted saffron in recent years.
Similar scenes were witnessed at Berhampore in Murshidabad, Purulia, Malda and elsewhere in the state. "It’s a historic victory," said an exuberant Adhir Chowdhury, adding "the vote was against BJP’s 'tanashahi'(dictatorship)."
Chowdhury and Congress's political base has been shrinking ever since Mamata Banerjee stormed into power in the state in 2011 and is currently limited to a few pockets in north Bengal.
The last assembly elections saw it being emasculated even in the Congress leader's home district of Murshidabad.
Nevertheless, he claimed "The TMC need not feel elated...it too will be rejected by the people of West Bengal in time.
(With PTI input)
Also read- Rajasthan: 'If my demands are not met...'- Sachin Pilot's ultimatum to Gehlot govt
