The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress, the two bitter political rivals in West Bengal, seem to be coming closer, and ironically it’s the Pegasus snooping scandal that is doing the trick.
The two parties have their leaders’ names in the list of potential Pegasus targets — Abhishek Banerjee from TMC and Rahul Gandhi from Congress.
The first sign of the two political adversaries coming together was the presence of veteran Congress leaders P. Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh, who were invited by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the virtual Martyrs’ Day event on July 21. Martyrs’ Day marks the firing on Congress protesters in 1993 Kolkata by the then ruling Left Front government.
Sources say Banerjee extended invitation to senior Congress leaders as she believes that no front would be able to take on the BJP juggernaut in 2024 general elections if it’s devoid of the Congress, notwithstanding the party’s dismal poll record in recent state elections.
Banerjee, sources said, believes that the Congress still enjoys dedicated support base in many parts of the country. Sources also said that this was a part of the brief given to election strategist Prashant Kishor when he had gone to meet the Gandhis in Delhi that the party needs to pull up its socks.
Back-door support in Parliament
Relations between the Congress and the TMC had gone kaput after the former decided to have an alliance with Trinamool’s most bitter rival in Bengal — the Left — in 2017, and which was repeated in the 2021 state polls too.
This apart, the appointment of Adhir Ranjan Choudhary as the state Congress chief had made matters worse. Choudhary is extremely vocal in his attacks against Banerjee with regard to Saradha and Narada scandals, thus adding to Banerjee’s ire.
Sonia Gandhi wanted to replace Choudhary, but the plan has now been shelved. Sources, however, said a back-channel communication has now been put in place between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress. For example, the TMC has decided that whenever they would raise the Pegasus row in the Parliament, they would also mention how Rahul Gandhi was also on the Pegasus target.
Sources also said that the people being roped in from the Congress to initiate conversation are Chidambaram, Abhishek Singhvi, among others.
“We are not even upset that TMC admitted (former President Pranab Mukherjee’s son) Abhijit Mukherjee as we would have been in other situations. This is a sign that on some issues, we are going to let the TMC get away with some things,” said a senior Congress leader.
Another clear sign of TMC cosying up to Congress is the likely meeting of Banerjee with Sonia Gandhi during her Delhi visit next week. Banerjee has always had a good rapport with Sonia Gandhi even though she has been critical of Rahul Gandhi in the past.
Banerjee is determined to unseat PM Modi’s BJP in 2024, but is also aware that it may not be easy, and, therefore, she’s trying to get the warring regional parties together to halt the BJP juggernaut in 2024. Sources close to the Bengal CM also said that for Banerjee, the bigger battle is the 2024 Lok Sabha election, for which she is ready to give up her anger and bitterness for the Congress for a while.
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