As Mamata prepares for 2019, her proximity to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi increases

Her protests against the Tata Nano factory in Singur made Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee a leader not just of Kolkata and its adjoining districts but entire West Bengal, and end the 34-year long Left Front rule in the state. Nearly a decade later, by taking the lead against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'note ban', Banerjee has positioned herself not only as a national leader for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but her support to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is also likely to ensure the end to the Congress-Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) alliance in Bengal.

If some of her aides are to be believed, their party chief, like with many of her decisions, concluded within minutes of Prime Minister Modi ending his address to the nation at 8.30 pm on November 8 that she will oppose, with all her might, the note ban decision. Did she realise the political impact of her opposing the move? According to one of her party MPs, Banerjee's clarity in raising "Trinamool", literally grassroots in Bengali, issues helped her beat her potential rivals in the Opposition space, particularly Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

When other political leaders were still trying to make sense of the implications of demonetisation, Banerjee was on phone instructing her party leaders to get in touch with prominent opposition leaders to convince them to issue statements to slam the move. According to an insider, Banerjee did not consult economists or other party leaders. “She didn’t need to. She trusted her political judgment that this move will be ruinous for the poor, and she has been proved right,” another Trinamool MP said.

While her party leaders busied themselves in contacting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, the Congress top leadership and others, the first of Banerjee’s six tweets that night criticising the decision was made at 9.46 pm. “While I am strongly against black money, corruption, I am also deeply concerned about common people and small traders. How they will buy essentials tomorrow,” it said.

In rest of her five tweets, Banerjee accused Modi of doing “drama” to divert attention from his failure to bring back black money, termed the decision “heartless and ill-conceived” and a blow to the common people and middle class in the fake name of corruption”. Her final tweet for the day at 10.19 pm said: “Withdraw this draconian decision.”

When she received feedback that other leaders, particularly Kumar and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, were unsure about criticising the move, Banerjee told her lieutenants that the party shouldn’t waste time in convincing them. She told them that it might take fence sitters a week or two, or even a month, but they will have to join. However, she was keen that the Congress issue a statement and wasn’t satisfied when the party picked its spokesperson Randeep Surjewala to do that.

By midnight, and it seems her goading contributed to this, former finance minister P Chidambaram issued a statement criticising note ban. Banerjee continued to persist with the leadership of her parent party and its leadership. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi made a statement by next morning.

She continued with her aggressive stand when the Winter Session of Parliament convened. Some in the CPI (M) even tried to spread a theory that she was playing the ‘B team’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since she herself is discredited in the Saradha scam and was now discrediting the Opposition protests against ‘note ban’. But, soon the Left parties also had to join Trinamool inside Parliament in protesting note ban.

Her march to Rashtrapati Bhavan was joined by National Conference’s Omar Abdullah and even BJP-ally Shiv Sena. On Thursday, the opposition organised ‘Black day’ to mark a month of ‘note ban’. The idea came from Kolkata. Not only Gandhi, but CPI (M) chief Sitaram Yechury also joined the protest.

Inside Lok Sabha, her party MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Saugata Roy have encouraged Gandhi to take the lead. Both have been telling him that "Didi", or elder sister as she is referred to by her party members, wants him to take the leadership in taking on Modi. “Our numbers are only marginally lower than that of the Congress and we need not play second fiddle, but she recognises that Congress is a national party,” an insider said. The Congress has 44 MPs in the Lok Sabha, while the Trinamool has 34.

There seems to be an informal pact that Banerjee will hit the streets, while Gandhi will be Trinamool’s leader in Parliament. Banerjee is preparing for 2019. She is not only reminding the Congress leadership that she is a Congress offspring, who quit the party as she was fed up of Congress in Bengal behaving like the “B team” of the CPI(M), with its leaders like Pranab Mukherjee and others were pejoratively likened to tarmuj, Bengali for watermelon, which is green outside, the Congress colour in Bengal, and red inside.

According to sources, Banerjee’s proximity to the Congress leadership is also choking the CPI(M)’s access to the Congress. The CPI (M) and Congress had a pre-poll alliance against Trinamool in the 2016 Bengal Assembly polls, which the two parties lost comprehensively. Banerjee’s strategy also tells the Congress that she will support Gandhi in his fight against Modi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Her lieutenants believe that Trinamool is finally a national party. It is doing what the CPI(M) did in 1996 and 2004 – punch above its weight and become a key to putting in place a coalition government at the Centre. For that to happen in 2019, Banerjee has to ensure that the Left Front and BJP continue to remain marginalised in Bengal and she gets to have an alliance with the Congress in the state.

A party MP stressed how it wasn't just coincidence that Banerjee was the first to wish Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her birthday on Friday. To ensure that she is the first, Banerjee tweeted at 10.19 pm on Thursday itself, over an hour before the clock struck midnight.