The West Bengal unit of Congress is on defensive because of the charges levelled against it by Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee. She stated tody that it deliberately opposed the move to form an electoral alliance for the municipal polls with a view to help the CPI(M)-led Left Front.
Emboldened by the presence of Subrata Mukherjee, who was the vice president of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) till yesterday before he decided to quit the party to join the TMC for the second time, Mamata claimed that by opposing an alliance, the Congress leaders had failed to honour the people's will.
The state Congress leaders were defensive. Pradip Bhattacharjee, the executive president of PCC, tried to refute the charges saying that the Congress could not be held responsible for the failure to cement an alliance with the TMC. Though, he did not elaborate on that issue and his discomfiture was visible.
Earlier, Subrata Mukherjee, in a press conference with Mamata Banerjee and Somen Mitra, said that some state Congress leaders were responsible for the breaking down of the alliance talks. He said that even before the talks started, some Congress leaders had declared that they would not offer any seats to the TMC in five districts. The state Congress leadership did not do anything to prevent this. Today, Subrata was accommodated as the vice president of the TMC and also made the chairman of the campaign committee for Kolkata Corporation election much to the chagrin of the old-timers in the party.
Subrata's exit has put the Congress in a piquant situation in south Bengal. If the Congress fails to perform reasonably in the municipal polls, it would seriously impact their chances of getting a better deal from the TMC in next year's assembly election. Pradip Bhattacharjee tried to take a conciliatory note towards the TMC and said the Congress did not want to blame anybody the failure to stich an alliance.
His partymen are apprehensive that if they perform poorly in the municipal election, it might cause an exodus from the Congress before next year's assembly election. Municipal polls would be held in the 81 municipalities including Kolkata and Salt Lake on May 30.