'Two UP Congress Leaders Join Trinamool In Mamata Banerjee's Presence': What's the Gameplan?

[Sukla Sen]

The TMC is, now, trying its utmost - almost desperate, to do what the NCP had been doing for quite a while - to act as a magnet for the disgruntled in the Congress.

The NCP had, however, despite the somewhat towering presence of Pawar (in Maharashtra) two other very eminent state leaders - from Meghalaya and, also, Bihar.

(The Meghalaya unit has since split away and the Bihar leader has rejoined the Congress.

Despite some feeble presence in Goa and Gujarat, it's now reduced to essentially the Maratha party in Maharashtra.)

In stark contrast, the TMC has only one leader - very much a "Bengali" leader (a "leader" primarily of vast sections of subaltern "Bengali" masses, to boot).

Pawar was, and to some extent still is, an "Indian" leader.

It'd be pertinent to recall that, in the not-too-distant past, in Bengali-speaking Tripura the TMC had lost its whole unit to the BJP.

Even then, the outcome of its Goa - a small state having hardly any Bengali-speakers, venture would be interesting to note.

Evidently, it cannot be all that insane to expect to emerge as an all-India party in the next parliamentary poll.

What it's trying is to somehow expand its footprints to strengthen its claim to the chair of the PM for its sole leader post the poll in case the BJP loses.

In the process, if the BJP emerges as the beneficiary - with disastrous consequences following, so be it.

(Like Modi, Mamata is also not risk-averse.)

It's interesting to note that yet another anti-BJP Chief Minister has adopted a somewhat similar stance (of fighting the Congress and the BJP all at the same time) to protect his own home turf: <https://www.deccanchronicle.com/amp/nation/politics/170917/congress-is-no-alternative-to-bjp-says-pinarayi-vijayan.html>.

To be fair, he, however, doesn't - for the time being at least, any all-India ambitions.

The party central committee, as is reported, has, however, taken quite a different and sensible stand.

Not good omens.

<<Two senior Congress leaders of Uttar Pradesh today joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in north Bengal's Siliguri, in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The two leaders, Rajeshpati Tripathi and Laliteshpati Tripathi, said they would carry on the fight to oust the BJP from power in Uttar Pradesh and the Centre, under the leadership of Ms Banerjee, the Trinamool supremo.

Rajeshpati Tripathi is an ex-Member of State Legislative Council (MLC) while Laliteshpati Tripathi is former UP Congress Vice President and an ex-Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA).>>

(Excerpted from: <https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/two-uttar-pradesh-congress-leaders-join-trinamool-congress-tmc-in-west-bengal-chief-minister-mamata-banerjees-presence-2587380/amp/>.)