Speculation about Mamata Banerjee skipping delimitation meet is much ado about nothing

-

Too much should not be read into Mamata Banerjee’s non-participation in the inaugural Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting on the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats convened by DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin in Chennai to galvanise the Opposition to take a united stand against the BJP’s plausible plans to redraw parliamentary constituencies on the basis of population for gaining an unfair advantage in future general elections.

Mamata Di gave the Chennai conclave a miss because she was too preoccupied with her trip to the United Kingdom. The Chennai meeting took place exactly on the same day the Trinamool Congress boss boarded an Emirates flight in Kolkata for London via Dubai leading a big business delegation to attract British industrialists to fast track the state’s economic development. Her departure itself was pretty chaotic because of the blowout in Heathrow airport and her schedules had to be reworked at the eleventh hour.

As it is, Stalin convened the meeting of non-BJP CMs at rather short notice when Mamata was very busy tying up the loose ends of her foreign trip, which included a speaking engagement at Oxford University’s Kellogg College. And a distracted Mamata ended up skipping Stalin’s do – it’s as simple as that.

TMC’s Mamata-centric journey

Importantly, the West Bengal CM’s absence in Chennai -- which naturally set tongues wagging -- underlined how Mamata-centric her Trinamool Congress – the third biggest opposition party after the Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party in terms of Lok Sabha MPs – actually is.

All decisions; whether important or unimportant; are taken by her. As she didn’t have the mind space for Stalin’s event because she was concentrating on her own event in Britain, the party went completely unrepresented in Chennai fuelling speculation about cracks in the Opposition. This could have been easily avoided by sending two senior Trinamool Congress MPs to Chennai to stand in for the CM who was busy doing other things. But -- fortunately or unfortunately -- decision-making in the Trinamool Congress is too centralised for that to have happened!

True, Mamata didn’t turn up in Chennai, but one can safely bet that she will definitely go to Hyderabad for the next JAC meeting whose date will be announced shortly.

On the same wavelength as Stalin

The good news for the Opposition – and bad news for the BJP – is that irrespective of her conspicuous absence in Chennai, Mamata and Stalin are on the same page on all issues pertaining to Centre-State relations and have sworn to counter the BJP’s aggression and belligerence unitedly. They are as thick as thieves.

Mamata has so far seconded every cause that Stalin has espoused, including the misuse of Governors to browbeat and intimidate opposition ruled states, and thrown her weight behind the Tamil Nadu CM’s demand to replace R. N. Ravi. They speak in the same voice on the Narendra Modi government’s discriminatory practices in federal fund distribution, unfair allotment of grants, and denial of permission for irrigation projects and for special funds for drought relief.

At the personal level, Mamata has publicly described her bonding with Stalin as “brother-sister” relations flagging the warmth in their equation. Their cordiality is also evident from Mamata squeezing in a tete-a-tete with him even during short trips to Chennai.

There is no doubt that even if Mamata couldn’t make it to the Chennai conclave as it clashed directly with her departure for the UK, she should have given Stalin’s event some priority and at least deputed a couple of key MPs to represent the Trinamool Congress at the gathering of opposition parties.

Duplicate voter ID issue gets more weightage

At the same time, a section in the Trinamool Congress doesn’t see the BJP’s seat delimitation project, which has so badly ruffled Stalin’s and other southern CMs’ feathers, as an immediate threat which deserves to be fought right away on a war footing.

This sizeable and vocal section believes that the duplicate voter ID issue – raked up and championed by none other than Mamata -- should be given priority over the delimitation issue as it impacts the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where the opposition parties have high stakes. Bihar goes to the polls later this year, while elections in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be held next year.

Mamata, who is being accused in some quarters of ditching ally Stalin by not turning up in Chennai, shoulders a big responsibility at present not only as an unsparing and trenchant Modi-BJP critic and one of the claimants of India’s highest post, but as the illustrious Jyoti Basu’s successor. He fought passionately with the Centre for the interests of the states, took on hegemonic national parties and captained a regional party like the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to great heights. Mamata, therefore, has big shoes to fill – and the JAC’s Hyderabad meeting is just round the corner.