Opposition leaders who have gathered today in the Jharkhand capital, Ranchi, for Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s swearing-in extravaganza might turn green with envy if they were to be told the reason for holding the event at 3.30 pm instead of 10.30 am as originally planned.
The reason is Mamata Banerjee!
I have reliably learnt that Soren had conveyed to Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, M. K. Stalin, Arvind Kejriwal, Tejashwi Yadav and Omar Abdullah that he would be sworn in on November 28 morning in Ranchi’s Morabadi Ground and all of them readily accepted his invitation to fly down. But when the hero of Jharkhand telephoned Mamata, she expressed regret citing a slew of prior engagements – a legislative assembly session plus a preparatory meeting for the all-important Bengal Global Business Summit scheduled for February – in the first half of the day. Soren, however, wanted Mamata’s presence so badly that he immediately decided to push the event to late afternoon to ensure her participation. After Mamata’s nod, the revised timing was communicated to all the other invitees who, obviously, didn’t demand an explanation.
TMC sweep in bye-elections raises Mamata’s stock
There is no doubt that Mamata’s stocks have suddenly risen after her Trinamool Congress trounced the Bharatiya Janata Party by record margins in all the six assembly seats in West Bengal where bye-elections were held – in sheer contrast to the Congress Party’s rout in Maharashtra preceded by its shocking defeat in Haryana.
Mamata’s sweeping poll victory overriding the RG Kar Hospital rape-murder stir , predicted by this columnist a month ago, has clearly impacted the balance of power in the opposition INDIA bloc. First and foremost, it has pitted the triumphant Trinamool Congress against a shaky Congress Party. But it hasn’t stopped at that; it is even triggering vociferous demands by key Trinamool Congress MPs to dump Rahul and project Mamata instead as the face of the anti-BJP front in order to evict Prime Minister Narendra Modi-Home Minister Amit Shah from power.
TMC can’t supplant a national party
Her jubilant loyalists are naturally crowing but I don’t foresee a change in the INDIA pecking order as the Trinamool Congress is, after all, only a regional party without a national footprint. As Mamata has suddenly acquired a halo, the Trinamool Congress is over the moon. But its currently soaring ambition is clearly bigger than its capabilities and should be right-sized in its own interest.
Initially, after the results were announced on November 23, the Trinamool Congress shouting brigade bracketed the party with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and publicly asked INDIA constituents to ponder over the reasons why they had defeated the BJP whereas the Congress Party had lost to the very same BJP. But that was only for starters.
Now, three Trinamool Congress big guns, Kalyan Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs respectively, and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh are openly asking the Congress Party to shed its ego and step aside so that Mamata can take the reins of INDIA’s leadership in her hands. The demand is obviously leading to tensions between the two parties. In such a confrontationist scenario, it’s natural for observers to closely watch Rahul’s and Mamata’s body language and chemistry on the dais in Ranchi today.
The trio is hoarse from shouting before TV cameras that if Mamata’s Lakshmir Bhandar scheme is being copied in Jharkhand and Maharashtra to win elections, why shouldn’t she become the fulcrum of the anti-BJP movement and her political acumen cum vast governance experience harnessed nationally? Their logic is that she is most suited and best equipped to lead INDIA from the front as she defeated the BJP in West Bengal in the 2021 assembly polls, the 2023 panchayat elections, reduced the number of BJP seats in the 2024 parliamentary polls and hit the BJP for a six in the recent bye-elections.
In short, their contention is that Rahul is a serial loser and Mamata a serial winner, hence INDIA constituents must appoint her as the captain without losing any more time so that the opposition starts winning and stops losing.
Invoking support for Gowda, Gujral and Basu as examples
Mamata loyalists, who are demanding that Mamata lead the INDIA, readily acknowledge that the Congress Party indeed has many more MPs than the Trinamool Congress. But they are still exhorting the Congress Party to back Mamata emulating the past when the grand old party threw its weight behind HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral and Jyoti Basu for the prime minister ship of the country.
Even as Mamata and the Trinamool Congress are making waves post November 23, the BJP is squirming in embarrassment in West Bengal. Notably, it isn’t even trying to give any excuses for the drubbing, stoically insisting that it will perform much better in the real test – the 2026 assembly elections. As for the Trinamool Congress, the hype and hoopla surrounding it and its wily chief is bound to dissipate as the reality of being a regional party sinks in. But a grand foundation day celebration on January 1 is a certainty.
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