West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to bail out Odisha in the ongoing potato crisis seems to have dealt a setback to the effort of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and leaders of his ilk to form a Federal Third Front taking regional parties to the forefront as an alternative to the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2014 elections.
Patnaik had made a much-publicised telephonic request to Banerjee over a week ago to lift the restrictions on supply of potato from her State. The WB Chief Minister reportedly did not respond to the request on the ground of rising prices of potato and other vegetables in her own State.
When one State is least concerned about the problem of a neighbour as it happened in this case, it has generated much skepticism over the very dependability of the proposed front. It has made clear that should such regional powers float a front to grab space in the national politics, it would continue to survive till each constituent member’s interest is satisfactorily pandered. The other way round, with the regional leaders lacking concern for each other and cohesion, such a front may be a wild goose chase. However, the nation has bitter experience in the past of similar fronts of the self-centered regional players, which fell like nine pins within a short period of time.
Banerjee has imposed a virtual ban on supply of potato from her State in order to ensure that the price of the vegetable remains confined to Rs 13 per kg in WB. At the same time, her Government is said to have got a chance to tally its governance with the Odisha counterpart by showing that potato sells at Rs 13 in her State against as high as Rs 80 on the other side of the border. Notably, Odisha depends on West Bengal for 90 per cent of its potato consumption as the former’s potato production is too poor despite Patnaik’s tall talks of making rapid strides in the agriculture sector. In fact, Banerjee at a public meeting in Birbhum even took the credit of having been able to keep the potato price at Rs 13 when it is Rs 80 in Odisha.
Interestingly, Patnaik has so far not commented on Banerjee’s cold-shouldering his personal request to her. Maybe, Patnaik does not want to strain his relation with her WB counterpart with a long term goal in view, but his silence amounts to ignoring the interest of the State at the cost of his political ambitions, according to observers.