In the turf war between the CPI(M) and its arch rival Trinamool Congress, veteran Congressman and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has found new prominence.
Mukherjee has been invited by the comrades to cut the red ribbon and inaugurate a host of West Bengal government programmes— ranging from a seminar of Panchayat bodies to laying the foundation stone of irrigation projects. Apart from being a Central minister, Mukherjee is the president of the state Congress unit.
Mukherjee’s aides told Business Standard that almost 20 invitation letters from the state government for various programmes are pending his approval. These are for January and February when Mukherjee will be busy in New Delhi, preparing the Budget.
It is not as if the CPI(M) has suddenly discovered Mukherjee’s importance. The purpose is to irritate Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. In a stark contrast to Mukherjee, Banerjee doesn’t share dais with any CPI(M) leader.
Her party leaders, including the six ministers of state in the UPA government, boycott programmes that are attended by Left leaders. But Mukherjee, a veteran of ‘divide and rule’ politics in West Bengal is now becoming cautious. He is becoming more choosy about the programmes he agrees to attend. Last week, he cancelled a programme of West Bengal Panchayet Minister Anisur Rehman at the last moment even though he had initially given his consent. Mukherjee has also not given his consent to an invitation from JK Ghosh, an aide of former chief minister Jyoti Basu, seeking his presence to inaugurate a ‘fair’.
Mukherjee has told friends that every time he is seen with the CPI(M) leaders, Trinamool chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee flies into a rage .
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According to a key aide of the Railway Minister, she sees this as an attempt by the Left to create a rift in the Congress and Trinamool’s alliance in West Bengal. Banerjee had stopped talking to Mukherjee for almost two months after the Congress took the support of the CPI(M) to form the municipal corporation board in Siliguri shunning its alliance partner. Banerjee has complained to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her political secretary Ahmed Patel that some leaders continue to maintain a good rapport with the Left and not keen to see the Opposition ousting the comrades from power.
In the CPI(M), while party general secretary Prakash Karat and his supporters continue to follow the “defeat BJP, reject Congress” policy, the Bengal lobby feels that it needs to create a division between the Trinamool and the Congress ahead of the crucial assembly polls. As a part of this strategy, top leaders of the CPI(M) make sure they never miss an opportunity to invite Mukherjee—the number two in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet and the state Congress chief—to exhibit their proximity. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee regularly meets the PM and other top ministers whenever he comes to Delhi and claims the Centre is supporting his initiatives.