TMC not to play second fiddle to Cong

By Venkatesh Kesari | NT  with agency inputs

New Delhi: The Trinamool Congressled by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee clearly indicated that it will not play second fiddle to the Congress during the winter session of parliament and started approaching anti BJP parties for effective floor coordination in the two Houses of parliament.

The Trinamool Congress has called its working committee meeting in Kalighat on Monday , the day the Congress’s leader in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, also the Leader of Opposition, has called a meeting of floor leaders of the Opposition in New Delhi. However, senior Trinamool Congress leaders –Abhishek Banerjee, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Derek O’Brien will not remain present in the Kharge’s meeting as they would attend the Trinamool Congress’s meeting in Kalighat which will be presided over by Mamata Banerjee.

Although Mamata has good equations with the NCP, the Shiv Sena, the AAP, the DMK and other regional parties ,--the NCP and the Shiv Sena--will find it difficult to distance from the Congress against the government as they are sharing power with the Congress in Maharashtra.

On the other hand,it is still unclear whether the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav would work with the Congress or the Trinamool Congress in parliament.

The BJD, the YSR Congress Party, the TRS and the TDP are seen as pro government parties and do not thus refuse to join the Opposition. For them,the interests of their states--Odisha, Andhra and Telangana-are more important then the opposition unity. Besides, they got political space from the Congress.

The Opposition is united to take on the government but divided on the strategy and the leadership issue because the Trinamool, the Samajwadi Party and the AAP are fighting coming assembly polls against the Congress in Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is a known critic of Mamata Banerjee. Recently he attacked her saying she is trying to turn the Congress to the Congress (M) and is becoming an instrument of Narendra Modi’s hold on power. She is driving a wedge in the Opposition coalition. The Congress is a soft target because she still enjoys proximity with some Congress leaders, he alleged.

Amid the strained relationship between the two, the TMC advised the Congress that it should have “proper internal coordination and set their own house in order”.

“We are disinterested in coordinating with the Congress during the winter session. Congress leaders should first coordinate among themselves. They should set their own house in order and then think about coordinating with other camps,” a senior TMC leader privy to the party’s decision said on condition of anonymity.

Asked whether the TMC would coordinate with other opposition parties, he said, “We will raise several issues concerning the people’s interest and will coordinate with them. We most probably will not attend the opposition parties’ meeting convened by the Congress.” Speaking about aversion to the Congress in the fight against the BJP, he said, “their leaders lack the determination to take on the saffron camp”. The TMC will hold its national coordination committee meeting on November 29 at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence here.

The party will discuss various issues, including its strategy in the Parliament winter session, the TMC leader said. Banerjee, in July, was unanimously chosen as the chairperson of the TMC parliamentary party. TMC’s RS party leader Derek O’ Brien, while listing out the topics that the party would raise during the winter session, said the issues “self-select themselves”.