An abrupt SMS from Congress president Sonia Gandhi wishing a happy Diwali and a quick response from Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wishing the same back to her has left the political grapevine in Bengal pregnant with speculations.
According to Trinamool sources, Bengal Chief Minister is keen to repair the damaged bridges between her party and the Congress particularly after the Bihar election results.
This is one reason why the Trinamool Congress chief is planning to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on November 20 postponing a vital party organisational programme slated on the same day, a senior Trinamool leader said.
In an apparent bid to augment her relevance before the Cogress-RJD-JDU axis, the Chief Minister is planning to work in coordination with the “grand alliance” at the floor of Parliament, insiders said. Though she has not yet spoken on the recent decision of the Centre on FDI the Trinamool leadership said the CM would make “appropriate statement at an appropriate time.”
Banerjee herself said, “I will not say things now. I will only give my reaction on some recent developments soon.”
Meanwhile Bengal CIP(M) leaders were also vying for a camaraderie with the Congress with a number of senior State secretariat members talking in favour of “seat sharing mechanism if not an alliance” with that party.
“The Congress is a bourgeois party. But their secular credentials cannot be questioned. At present it is as necessary to counter the rising communal forces as it is to thwart the forward march of lumpen raj of Trinamool in Bengal. So we need to go together with the Congress” the senior leader said.
A majority of the State Congress leaders save the PCC president Adhir Chowdhury want to go with the left. “The Trinamool Congress has proved itself as the party of criminals,” said OP Mishra.
Senior leaders like Abdul Mannan have also been favouring an understanding with the left instead of the Trinamool. “We had jointly run a Government in the Centre for more than four years but we failed in that experience with the Trinamool in a little more than one year. They are a party of the goons run by a dictator” he said.