If Trinamool Congress insiders are to be believed then Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to go all out against her “two arch rivals”: the left and the Congress not only in West Bengal but also in other States like Kerala.
With a view to decimate the twosome in God’s Own Country Banerjee is planning to gatecrash into the electoral politics there. Six months ahead of the 2014 general elections the Chief Minister is sending her most trusted lieutenant Mukul Roy to the southern State to find poll partners, sources said.
Roy, a former Railway Minister is likely to live for Kerala on Friday to do the spade work for the party chief to announce her entry into the State politics formally. Roy was likely to get in touch with the “like-minded” parties for electoral adjustments, sources said adding he would also try to fathom the Bengal Chief Minister’s popularity in that State.
Banerjee had adopted similar tactic in Tripura where she was planning to gobble up the Congress which was currently the biggest opposition outfit in that State.
Known not to let her enemy go till one was annihilated completely the Chief Minister had plans to hit two birds through her Kerala campaign: The strategy would not only help her make some dent into the Congress vote bank but also put her up as a possible third alternative apart from the left Front.
Both her ventures into Kerala and Tripura could help her inch closer to being a national party, insiders said adding the Chief Minister would try to take the other smaller parties with her into the lok Sabha elections.
“There is no harm in starting fresh innings in these States because the entire country knows about Mamata Banerjee’s no-nonsense attitude, her honesty, her dedication for the poor and her political sincerity,” a senior leader and an MP said.
Meanwhile in an unrelated development the Chief Minister had decided to make some reshuffle in her Cabinet on Thursday. The exercise would also include introduction of a new face in the Ministry.
Dr Shahsi Panja MlA and daughter of former Union Minister Ajit Panja was likely to be sworn in as a Cabinet Minister on Thursday, Nabanna (new secretariat) sources said. Apart from this some Ministers were likely to be shifted out to lesser departments. They include Banerjee’s one-time close associate and present Industries Minister Partho Chatterjee. Her decision for reshuffle comes close on the heels of a meeting held last week to evaluate the performance of the Ministers.