Parties Left, Right and Centre teaming up to take on TMC in rural Bengal

The emerging 'rainbow' coalition of opposition in rural Bengal is a reiteration of the fact that antagonism against the TMC overrides all other political compulsions for foot soldiers of these parties.

Winning candidates of the Congress and the Left joined hands with the BJP to prevent Trinamool Congress (TMC) from forming a board in several gram panchayats in the past few days. The political shenanigans have a clear message for the grand alliance the 26 non-BJP parties cobbled together to unseat Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress, the CPI (M)-led Left parties, and the TMC are part of the national alliance, tactically christened the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA in short. That the alliance is not resonating at the micro-level in the state is evident from the cross-voting.

Over 200 hung panchayats

Over 200 gram panchayats have thrown up a hung condition in the recently-concluded rural polls. In many of these hung panchayats, the opposition is ganging up against the TMC.

“The INDIA is a national-level arrangement worked out by our party leadership. But I have helped the BJP to form the panchayat board as per the directive of the local leadership who wanted to honour the sentiments of the people,” Bulu Prasad Jana, a CPI (M) panchayat member, told the media.

Jana was accused of helping the BJP form the board at Amritberia gram panchayat in East Midnapore district. Subhra Panda of the BJP became the pradhan of the panchayat while the upapradhan post went to CPI(M)’s Paresh Panigrahi.

The winning candidates of the BJP, Congress, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and an independent joined hands to form the board at Mahesail gram panchayat. In this panchayat, Almira Khatun of the Congress was elected as pradhan. Similar anti-TMC alliance was also propped up in Nadia’s Ruipukur, Debagram, and Bhimpur gram panchayats to form the board.

“Stern action will be taken against those who have violated the party’s avowed stand to join hands with the BJP,” said Sumit Biswas, a Nadia district leader of the CPI (M).

Local compulsions forcing opposition alliance

State BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said local compulsions have compelled the party members to form such an alliance. He said the BJP, on principle, does not subscribe to such an arrangement.

BJP sources, however, told The Federal that the party would encourage such understanding at the local level with the CPI (M) and the Congress to defeat the TMC.

BJP Nandigram MLA and Leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari is a great proponent of such an idea, they pointed out.

“He (Adhikari) has been appealing to the anti-TMC forces to come together. In this regard, he has also given a call for no-vote to TMC,” said a BJP leader from North Bengal.

Mamata’s potshot at Opposition

Taking a potshot at the emerging “rainbow” alliance, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee dubbed the coalition as BJINDIA.

“It is unfortunate that at a time when we formed INDIA to fight against the BJP at the national level, the CPI (M) and the Congress are joining hands with the BJP in the state to from BJINDIA,” she said.

Senior CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty refused to give much importance to his party panchayat leaders' rendezvous with the BJP.

“Those are isolated incidents and should not be perceived as a trend,” he said.

The CPI (M) state leadership has, however, conveyed to the central leadership that the party workers would prefer siding with the BJP than to soften their stand against the TMC, the party sources claimed.

It was the en masse migration of the Left supporters to the BJP that led to the saffron surge in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Gauging the mood of the workers, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury already ruled out any alliance with the TMC in Bengal. But not many in the party had anticipated that several panchayat members of the Left Front would go to the extent of allying with the BJP just to thwart TMC's prospects.