Cong and TMC terminate a long-festering relationship in the state
Less than 24 hours after Trinamool Congress pulled out from UPA at the Centre, the Congress withdrew its six ministers in West Bengal
Less than 24 hours after the Trinamool Congress pulled out from the UPA at the Centre, the Congress in West Bengal will withdraw its six ministers from the Mamata Banerjee government in the state, signaling a complete break from the tenuous alliance of the Congress and the TMC in both the Centre and the state. WBPCC members confess they are relieved at the snapping of ties as they had been complaining to the central leadership for long about the unfeasibility of working with the TMC in the state.
The relations between the two parties in the state had been rocky from the start of the alliance in the state last year. Congress leaders had been routinely complaining to AICC incharge of the state Shakeel Ahmed of the “highhandedness of the TMC.” Complaints ranged from ransacking of Congress party offices to beating up of party workers.
In order to keep the delicate balance intact at the Centre, WBPCC members confess they were always counseled to overlook these incidents. “The TMC was openly doing everything it could do finish us in the state and we could do nothing because of the compulsions at the Centre," said a state Congress leader.
The embittered relations between the two often spilt out in public denouncements of Banerjee’s government. State Congress MPs like Adhir Chowdhury and Deepa Das Munshi lambasted the state government on various issues, including farmer suicides, law and order situation and attempts at suppression of freedom of expression, even as the party continued to be part of her government.
Even the Teesta water sharing treaty was derailed, West Bengal Congress senior leaders insist as Banerjee was against the benefits of it percolating to areas of north Bengal. The Congress has won its maximum seats from this region.
Much before the formal snapping of relations between the two parties at the Centre, the TMC had declared that they would be going it alone in the upcoming Panchayat elections in January 2013 in West Bengal.
The TMC supremo on several occasions challenged the Congress to break the alliance and walk if they wished to.
Pradeep Bhattacharya West Bengal Pradesh Congress chief speaking to Business Standard said, “The TMC should remember that when they voted for us they voted for a Trinamool and the Congress combine. She will not gain in going alone, the way she is imagining it to be.” He however described the present state of affairs as "unfortunate", and said, "the TMC chief is answerable to the people for this."
The Congress confesses that they can now openly haul up the TMC government and its failures and excesses – the deteriorating law and order the growing crime against women, without worry of upsetting an already untenable relationship.