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Last Updated Wednesday November 25 2020 04:35 AM IST

Congress back in spotlight

Sachidananda Murthy
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The Congress has suddenly become the focus of political attention in two large cities and a small enclave on the eastern coast.

Political observers in the metropolitan cities of Kolkata and Chennai as well as the former French colony of Puducherry are keen to figure out the party's strategy in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, states where it is not a major political force.

Sonia Gandhi-led Congress has, however, become a key player that can tilt political calculations in these three coastal states, which go for elections in May this year along with Kerala and Assam.

The recently concluded organisational plenum of the CPM in Kolkata saw strong sentiment being expressed by a section of West Bengal leaders that a strategic tie up with the Congress would be needed to stop the Trinamool Congress juggernaut led by the charismatic Mamata Banerjee.

The Marxists, who led the Left Front in power from 1977 to 2011 without any interruption, think a resurgence is possible only with either a formal or even informal tie up with the Congress.

In 2011 Assembly elections, the electoral alliance of Mamata Banerjee and Congress, had served a shock defeat to the Left Front, to end the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee regime. Soon the allies fell apart, but the Trinamool swept the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, wiping out the splintered opposition of the CPM, the Congress and the BJP.

The Congress has been smarting over what it calls the betrayal of Sonia by Mamata. But the Congress, which has been out of power since 1977, knows it does not have neither the organisational strength nor the mass appeal to take on the Trinamool.
Similarly the CPM has been affected by a steady erosion in its ranks to Trinamool and the BJP over the last four years.

But the CPM now senses an erosion in the popularity of Mamata, mainly due to the non-performing economy.

The party thinks the new general secretary Sitaram Yechury, considered to be more pragmatic than his predecessor Prakash Karat, would be able to press the Congress high command for an anti-Mamata and anti-BJP front of secular parties.

But Yechury knows that the sentiment in the Kerala unit of the CPM is against any truck with the Congress, as the CPM-led Left Democratic Front takes on the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

Yechury also knows that the assembly polls provide him an ideal opportunity to take control of the party. Leading the party to electoral success in both the states, which were once CPM bastions, would be the key agenda for Yechury.

The Kerala unit of the Congress has been less vociferous on the alliance moves being mooted in Bengal, leaving the issue to the wisdom of the high command. Sonia has asked a group of senior leaders to assess the Bengal situation and give the options to the high command.

In Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, it is the erstwhile ally DMK which has begun mooting the need to form broad opposition fronts to take on CMs Jayalalithaa and N.R. Rangaswamy, respectively.

The Congress, which always was the satellite of the either AIADMK or DMK since 1970s, is in a pathetic shape, after its decade-long alliance with the DMK crumbled following the involvement of DMK ministers in major scams that crippled the Manmohan Singh government.

Further the Congress suffered a setback when former union minister G.K. Vasan quit and formed his own party. But Vasan too has not been able to make much political headway, as he failed to secure an invite from Jayalalithaa to join the AIADMK-led front.

DMK patriarch M.Karunanidhi, who wants to defeat his arch rival Jayalalithaa once more, has been sending feelers to Sonia that she should patch up with Vasan and the party should then join a DMK-led opposition front, which could also include DMDK and PMK. Similarly DMK is suggesting a tie up with Congress and PMK to take on Rangaswamy, who rebelled against the Congress and has an understanding with Jayalalithaa.

Sonia is asking a group of senior leaders including Manmohan Singh, Digvijaya Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Veerappa Moily to give a detailed plan of action to herself and party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

But the objective of the Congress high command is more focussed on denying any toehold to Narendra Modi and the BJP in the ensuing assembly elections, while the target of the CPM in Bengal is Mamata and that of DMK in Tamil Nadu is Jayalalithaa.

Tailpiece: Tamil star and DMDK leader Vijayakanth, who had an alliance with AIADMK in 2011 assembly polls and a not so successful tie up with the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has put forth one condition for joining any front. The DMDK leader wants himself to be projected as the CM candidate, but the response to this proposal has been lukewarm, as no opposition party wants to give the leadership mantle to Vijayakanth in Tamil Nadu.

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