Calcutta Capers

In a way, it has been back to square one for Ms Mamata Banerjee, the one and onlyTrinamool Congress(TMC) leader. She might have realised her wish of making the stateCongress, her bete noire, eat humble pie by accepting a junior status in the new Cong-TMCalliance, but in the process she also opened a Pandora's box. Two immediate consequencesfollowing the launch of the alliance were ambitious TMC cadres, hoping for party tickets,becoming frustrated and either staying away from party work, or joining new parties. Dittofor disillusioned Congressmen. Then heavyweight Congress leaders with a base of their own,like A.B.A.Ghani Khan Choudhury of Malda were in no mood to listen to TMC dictates andopenly spoke of rebellion.

The clincher came from senior TMC leader and former Union Minister Ajit Panja, whoattacked Ms Banerjee openly for her dictatorial ways at an emotional news conference.

Panja is known to be speaking for other MPs like Ms Krishna Bose, Mr. Bikram Sarkar, Mr.Nitish Sen Gupta and quite possibly his brother Dr Ranjit Panja as well. Observersinterpreted Panja's outburst, which did no good to the TMC's image before the polls, as awarning to Ms Banerjee to behave or else. Panja's warm relations with the BJP is commonknowledge. Panja now spearheads the inner revolt from the TMC ranks against theunpredictable ways of their supreme leader, while Congressmen like Choudhury and othersare attacking her from outside. The question is, already up to her neck in herself-proclaimed battle to oust the long entrenched Left front from power, does Ms Banerjeehave it in her to ride out the simmering revolt on two flanks simultaneously? Lesserpeople would have quailed at the task.

Like most parties in Bengal, the TMC too has put up some strange candidates. ActorTapas Paul and actress Madhabi Mukherjee, contesting Alipore and Jadavpore respectively,are two examples in the sense that there is no record of previous political activity. NowDilip Das, the TMC candidate for Raiganj has instead been put up at Taltola in centralCalcutta. Why? P.R.Das Munshi objected to his presence at Raiganj or even adjacentKaliaganj, while Das himself did not much care for Kushmundi, which was offered later. Ifsuch candidates win, will they be taken seriously?

The TMC is not alone. Even the fledgling PSD, set up by former CPI(M) leader SaifuddinChoudhury, has done the same. Its nominee for Taltola, Ms Tapati Saha, publicly declinedto contest even after a formal announcement. For east Belaghia, the PSD nominee SunandanRoy Choudhury is better known as a publisher, than for any political inclinations.

Wonder of wonders, even the organised CPI(M) is no better. Its Alipore nominee, a lady,was replaced at the last moment by another without much explanation. The lady had neverconcealed her links with the TMC, but susprisingly the CPI(M)'s mighty Calcutta districtcommittee, which made the choice, was uninformed! A CPI(M) state committee member admittedthat such a thing had never happened before!

Calcutta CPI(M) poll graffiti: Ms Mamata Banerjee kneeling before Ajit Panja, (whoplays Ramakrishna on stage as an amateur actor) saying, "Bless me, dear Lord, notwith higher consciousness or wisdom -- the chief minister's chair would suit me fine,thank you!"

CPI(M) state secretary, Anil Biswas, reacting to the news that Panja broke into tearswhile narrating his experience in the Trinamool Congress under Ms Banerjee: "First itwas Mr George Fernandes who wept because Ms Banerjee let him down, after all he had donefor her. Now it is the turn of Mr Panja to weep. Tomorrow, the people who vote for herwill be in the same boat and they'll weep too."