Trinamool-BJP bonhomie continues

Mamata to accompany Modi to Dhaka, West Bengal minister says

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have succeeded in persuading West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to accompany him on his two-day visit to Bangladesh on June 6 and 7. But his predecessor Manmohan Singh had failed to achieve the feat.

But unlike Singh, Modi and Banerjee are not in favour the Teesta water sharing pact. Banerjee, after having initially committed, had opted out of Singh’s entourage when he visited Dhaka in September 2011 in protest against the treaty.

According to sources, both the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are wary that the Left parties, nearly decimated in Bengal, might exploit the Teesta deal to resurrect itself in the state Assembly elections, scheduled for early 2016. The Teesta agreement will affect North Bengal, where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) continues to remain strong. On Tuesday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Kolkata that India and Bangladesh would soon approve the long-pending Teesta river water-sharing agreement. “We are hopeful that we will get full cooperation from the West Bengal government”, Singh said. According to sources, the Teesta agreement will be discussed during the talks between Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina but likely to be signed post-2016 polls.

That Banerjee will be accompanying Modi, if it eventually comes about, will buttress the perception that the Trinamool and BJP have moved closer in recent months after a bitter Lok Sabha campaign of April-May 2014. The acrimony of that election poll campaign had brimmed over to the first few Parliament sessions of the new government, where Banerjee’s party opposed much of the legislative agenda of the government, and also accused the Modi government of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Saradha chit fund scam.

The Budget session of Parliament, however, signaled a rapprochement between the two parties, with the Trinamool supporting not just the government’s coal, mining and Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bills, but also the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement that the party had opposed during UPA years. Banerjee met the PM along with MPs and was assured of Centre’s help to Bengal. The Centre also committed Rs 3,009 crore to Bengal to rehabilitate families affected because of the boundary agreement.

This bonhomie might be interpreted as the BJP, after its unprecedented performance in the Lok Sabha elections, is unlikely to focus on forthcoming Bengal Assembly elections. The BJP fared miserably in the recent civic polls in Bengal.

Bengal Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee told PTI in Kolkata that Banerjee will travel with Modi. “We hope this visit will strengthen relations between the two Bengals and also between the two countries,” he said. Asked if the Chief Minister had given her consent to the Teesta treaty, Partha Chatterjee said, “I am not aware of it and I cannot comment on this matter… I believe that Bengal's interests will not be compromised.”