Bengal Congress In Doldrums As New State President Is Yet To Take Over

Reduced to a single Lok Sabha member from West Bengal post 2024 elections, the state Congress unit is busy picking up the pieces of the jigsaw which would help it arrive at the causes of its dismal state and chart its path of revival. Apart from an organisational rejig and the search for a state unit chief, senior Congress leaders at the state and the national level are contemplating a course correction.

Defeat of state Congress chief, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury at Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2024 polls has worsened matters for the party. Not only does it end Choudhury’s winning run, it raises a question mark about his policy of remaining in close touch with CPI(M) led Left Front. Choudhury has submitted his resignation from state presidentship. It is now up to the Congress high command to choose the new president.

Several Congress leaders together with the party rank file are wondering aloud if Choudhury’s departure from the seat of power puts a full stop on opposing Trinamool Congress. After all, ever since Congress and CPI (M), political rivals for decades joined forces, both outfits lost no opportunity in criticizing the TMC-run state government in general and its chief, Mamata Banerjee in particular.

After Choudhury’s defeat in Behrampore, there has been an improvement in floor coordination between TMC and Congress in both Houses of the Parliament. Both being part of the INDIA bloc coalition had earlier run into rough weather post Choudhury’s stinging criticism of Trinamool Congress before the Lok Sabha polls.

And Choudhury being the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha his words could not be brushed off by the central Congress leadership With TMC’,s principal critic no longer in the scene, Congress -TMC relations are likely to be better in the days to come. Nothing is more welcome to the national Congress leadership. The portents look like a new bonhomie between Congress and TMC has begun.

The firebrand TMC MP from Krishnanagar Mahua Moitra supporting a point raised by Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament is arguably an early indication. After all, Rahul Gandhi is a part of INDIA coalition, Moitra had signed off when asked for her attitudinal change.

Clearly both the leadership of Congress and Trinamool seem to be in a hurry to bury the hatchet. Both have a lot of ground to cover, especially the Congress many of whose leaders resent the fact that the floating of TMC and its increasing acceptance by the masses have pushed the state Congress into political irrelevance.

Organisational muscle turning into flab in the state Congress can be traced to the point of time when the TMC came into being. Projecting itself to be genuine opponents to Left Front “misrule”, it was a winning formula for the fledgling party state Congress stalwarts including Somen Mitra, stated to be Mamata Banerjee’s principal rival before the party had split , joined TMC and became its MP.

If Mitra returned to the Congress fold, other leaders like Subrata Mukherjee and Sougata Roy stayed put in their new political outfit. Congress had joined force with TMC to defeat the Left Front in 2011 Assembly elections but walked out of the new coalition government seeing its activists changing loyalty while TMC taking over many of their party offices.

An electoral alliance with Left in 2016 Assembly polls helped Congress reap a rich political dividend. Though there were defections from Congress, the unusual alliance often pinned down the TMC in the Assembly and away from it. CPI(M)’s number in assembly was less than the Congress after 2016 polls.

But post 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections, the Congress and the Left were on further downslide. Broadsides and pot shots continued to be taken at TMC though such onslaughts were no longer as stinging as before. A moment of truth seems to have arrived for the state Congress. Its leaders have to make up their mind whether they will stay with the Left led by the CPI(M) or opt for a new innings in alliance with the TMC. Since Adhir Choudhury is no longer state president or even a Lok Sabha member, the Congress leaders who are looking for their own interests will look for a tie up with the TMC.

The Congress high command, in its meeting on Monday in Delhi has sought the opinion of the senior Bengal leaders on the choice of new state president as also what should be the strategy on alliance in the state. It is expected that the new state president’s name will be announced early next month.

Just not the Bengal Congress leaders, the state CPI(M) is waiting anxiously for the decision of the Congress high command on the new state president. The last president Adhir Choudhury had a good relations with the CPI(M) due to his anti-Mamata stance. Congress and the Left had an electoral alliance before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and it worked well. The Congress workers worked for the Left candidates in many constituencies. The CPI(M) is interested in continuing this alliance as on its own, it has become irrelevant in Bengal politics now.

The Bengal CPI(M) is holding its plenum in the last week of August to go into the details of the factors that led to the disaster in the Lok Sabha polls. Preliminary review has shown that the party has no firm base among any section of people, workers, peasants, women and above all among the minority community which constitutes 27 per cent of the state’s population. Also the review reveals that the Congress has still organized base in some districts which the CPI(M) does not have. It is better for the CPI(M) to continue alliance with the Congress to fight both the TMC and the BJP in the state.

The state CPI(M) expects that the Congress high command’s decision on new state president will be known much before the party plenum. That should help the party in carrying discussions in the plenum on the nature of alliance. In any case, the CPI(M) is preparing itself for a situation under which the Left led by the CPI(M) will go alone in 2026 assembly polls if the Congress finally ditches the Left Front and allies with the TMC. (IPA Service)