On campaign trail, Cong-TMC slugfest

The alliance is in abeyance but the sparring has only just begun.

A day after West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president and Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed his dismay at the suspended partnership with the Trinamool Congress (TMC), his counterpart in the erstwhile combine yesterday returned the favour.

Trinamool Congress supremo and Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee — who begun her campaign for the upcoming Municipal polls in the state, scheduled for May 30 — did little to hide the fractiousness of her party's relationship with the Congress in the Centre. This is despite the fact that the TMC is the second-largest constituent of the incumbent United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

“The UPA is a collective and we are part of it. If we are given minimum respect, then we will honour the alliance and stay. We are not the CPI(M). Our commitment is only to the people as we are here because of their mandate,” said Banerjee, as she simultaneously took on her principal opposition in West Bengal and tacitly threatened her partner in New Delhi. That all isn't well between the two parties in the UPA has been evident in the past few weeks. But the implications on the hustings in West Bengal could be significant, too, especially if open derision continues to find a prominent place in the pre-poll rhetoric.

On the face of it, though, Banerjee ignored any such impingement as she further expressed her unhappiness with the Congress, albeit in a veiled manner. “My ministers of state are not getting any work (from their respective ministries). As a result, all the (developmental) work is being done through my (railway) ministry,” the TMC chief explained, putting to rest all speculation on why TMC junior ministers of other ministries were constantly involved in inauguration railway projects in the state.

Although the cursory warning against violence by the CPI(M) featured in Banerjee's campaign inaugural as expected, her request to the electorate to come out and vote for her party despite “the intense heat or rain” was less expected.

After all, with these polls positioned as the 'semi-finals' before the Assembly elections next year, Banerjee and her party's performance later this month will be crucial in determining whether the Left Front government can be ousted after over three decades in power.