Mamata Banerjee, not Rahul, for PM: What's behind leadership buzz before West Bengal polls

Congress leaders will also oppose Mamata Banerjee’s candidature as they view Rahul Gandhi as the natural choice for PM.

• Speculation grows over Mamata Banerjee as Opposition PM face
• Support for Banerjee seen as appealing to women voters
• Her national reach is limited; Congress prefers Rahul Gandhi

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Speculation about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee emerging as a possible prime ministerial face of the Opposition has sparked fresh political chatter.

The suggestion, put forward by senior journalist Sanjaya Baru and echoed by Trinamool MP Sagarika Ghose, has drawn support from parties including the DMK and the Shiv Sena (faction).

However, according to columnist Neerja Chowdhury, the momentum behind the discussion appears driven less by calculations for 2029 and more by the approaching political contest in West Bengal.

In her opinion piece in Indian Express, Chowdhury said SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has described it as “premature” to discuss a prime ministerial candidate for 2029 at this stage.

“First, we have to defeat the BJP in West Bengal and in Uttar Pradesh,” he told Chowdhury.

According to Yadav, he does not want new “political tangles” to thwart the non-BJP parties from taking on the ruling dispensation. “Nor has anyone approached us on the matter,” he said.

However, according to Chowdhury, the idea has been resonating with a section of the Opposition because projecting Banerjee is likely to appeal to women voters — an increasingly influential demographic in national elections.

“Like her or loathe her — she can be faulted on many fronts — Mamata has a proven record of delivering politically. She got the better of veterans in her own party, tall figures such as Pranab Mukherjee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi; broke ranks with the Congress; launched the TMC in 1998; went on to take the Congress’s place; and then brought down the Left Front that had been entrenched in the state for 34 years. Since then, she has managed to push back an ascendant BJP in two Assembly and three Lok Sabha elections. That is no small achievement,” said Chowdhury.

Calling the CM a “known fighter”, the columnist remembered Banerjee’s days when she climbed onto the bonnet of Jayaprakash Narayan’s car to protest during the Emergency.

However, according to Chowdhury, Banerjee’s political capital is limited to one state. “Her forays into smaller states such as Goa, Meghalaya, and Tripura after 2021 did not have the traction she expected. If she becomes the Opposition’s PM choice, she will be pitted against Narendra Modi who continues to enjoy national acceptance. All the regional satraps in the INDIA bloc, confined as they are to one state, face the same problem as her,” she said.

Chowdhury said Congress leaders will also oppose Banerjee’s candidature as they view Rahul Gandhi as the natural choice for PM. The Congress is the largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha and still has a pan-India presence.

According to her, the Bengal CM could well be accepted as the leader of many of the anti-BJP regional parties if they decided to band together as an entity. Chowdhury also called the INDIA bloc more as a platform than a formal electoral alliance.

She also said the Bengal CM’s hold on the poorer sections in rural areas, on women and minorities, her social welfare programmes, her booth-level organisation, her feisty spirit, and a subtle Bengali sub-nationalism have seen her through.

According to her, the possibility of a PM from Bengal can enthuse many in her favour.

“If truth be told, ‘Mamata for PM’ is more about West Bengal than about India or the INDIA bloc. It is more about 2026 than about 2029. Faced with 15 years of anti-incumbency, Mamata Banerjee needs more than the old slogans to generate new energies in her favour,” Chowdhury wrote.