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BJP, dissent threaten to spoil Trinamul's party

Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

A fortnight after the bubbles of the Mahajot (grand alliance) burst, the Trinamul Congress's electoral prospects ahead of Calcutta municipal elections have suffered a major setback.

This time the Trinamul's own partymen and ally Bharatiya Janata Party have threatened to mar its chances in next month's civic elections.

While the Trinamul's decision to allocate only 19 seats to its poll partner, the BJP, has irked the latter, its own men are now accusing the party leadership of appeasing the new entrants at the cost of 'genuine workers'.

The BJP's West Bengal unit vice-president, Muzaffar Khan has warned that if the Trinamul did not leave 45 of 141 municipal seats for his party, it could well jeopardise the entente between the two parties.

Khan told rediff.com, " Our demand is not unjustified. You see, even during the last year's parliamentary elections, the BJP had contested 13 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats. Therefore our contention is that this time too, we should be given one-third seats. We have apprised both the Trinamul leadership and the BJP high command of our demand. If the Trinamul doesn't pay heed to us, it may well lead to the breaking of political ties between the two parties."

The BJP leaders also grumble that the 19 seats allotted to them are not those they had requested for, but primarily the ones in Left Front strongholds. Says BJP state unit president Asim Ghosh, "These are not the seats we had opted for. It's an irony that the Trinamul has acted arbitrarily in seat-sharing, which doesn't bode well for the alliance especially when we talk of a Mahajot ahead of next year's assembly elections."

Trinamul leader Pankaj Banerjee, however, remained unruffled over the BJP's threats of severing ties with his party. Talking to rediff.com, he hoped the BJP would finally accept what has been given to it. "Fortyfive seats for the BJP is too much. After all, simple arithmetic doesn't always work in politics and one needs to look into various factors like winnability of the candidates. I don't think it is a serious threat and I am optimistic of an amicable resolution of the crisis," Banerjee said.

On the growing rumblings within his party for election tickets, Banerjee said the media had blown the issue out of proportion. He argued that discordant notes were bound to surface in a 'democratic party like the Trinamul' during the distribution of tickets.

"One cannot satisfy all," he remarked.

Stone pelting at the Trinamul leader's residence and unruly demonstrations outside the Trinamul chief's residence had marked the release of the list of Trinamul candidates on Wednesday.

The enraged workers went on a rampage and heckled senior party leaders like Sanjoy Bakhshi and Mukul De before stoning the Tollygunge residence of Mamta Banerjee herself.

The latter, however, refused to describe these protests as acts of defiance, saying it was merely the passionate outbursts of some enthusiastic Trinamul supporters.

Many Trinamul leaders are peeved over the way the party leadership was rolling out the red carpet for new entrants, mostly defectors from the Congress. Mamta's decision to project Subrata Mukherjee, former Congress legislator, as the party's mayoral candidate has only fuelled the bickering within the Trinamul.

"It was we who stood beside Mamta Banerjee when the same Congress leaders masterminded her expulsion . What perturbs us most is Banerjee's over-enthusiastic approach in felicitating them without knowing the detrimental effect it might have on the party," said a Trinamul district leader.

That the BJP central leadership has ruled out any intervention in the current crisis has come as a breather for Mamta. But in the wake of friendly contests as warned by the BJP state leaders, it's the Left Front which may well have the last laugh.

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