West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is on a three-day trip to Goa to test the political waters. She has appointed Mr. Luizinho Faliero, the former Chief Minister of Goa, as the Trinamool party’s National vice-president and the face of Goa. Faliero has been twice Goa’s Chief Minister and a seven times MLA representing the Indian National Congress and has resigned his seat from the Assembly while joining the Trinamool party. Prashant Kishor, the poll strategist who crafted Trinamool’s win, has been responsible for the defection of Faliero along with ten other congress leaders.
Goa Assembly has a strength of 40 and has two parliamentary seats, the latter of relevance to Mamata’s scheme of things if she has to focus on her PM post. The two parliamentary seats are too insignificant from numbers but is very significant to her ascension in the tally of states under her party’s flag. Mamata’s visit to Goa is an attempt to portray truly her as an All-India leader and her party to live up to its name as All India Trinamool Congress.
Assembly elections for Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab are likely to be held in February 2022, Himachal Pradesh in November 22 and Gujarat in December 22. Of the five states going for the elections in February, UP is the most important with 403 seats; Punjab comes next with 117 seats. Mamata’s attempts to enter the adjoining Tripura state have been firmly rebuffed by the BJP and its CM, Biplab Kumar Deb.
Distant parties jumping into the fray has never met with much success in India’s history. A national party like BJP, with great resources and deep pockets, could not make much of a dent in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections. It is, therefore, not a surprise that the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the Goa Forward Party have cold-shouldered Mamata. It is different when a leader and her party opposes Modi in tooth and nail. Many opposition leaders will hail and appreciate Didi’s efforts, but only until she does not seek a share of the cake from the other states for her party.
The Congress party is sceptical about Mamata’s ability to head an alliance and has criticised her party as a poaching party. True, Mamata cannot build leaders from the grassroots in other states, which she has not even done in Bengal. The shorter recourse is to buy disgruntled leaders from whichever party, regardless of their political background and leanings. Non-political faces like Leander Paes or Nafisa Ali joining Trinamool would not increase the party’s brand image in terms of votes.
The hesitance in stepping into Uttar Pradesh by Mamata is perceptible, where the opposition to Yogi Adityanath is strong, from the Yadav clan of Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of BSP. None of the opposition is ready to yield the space to Mamata, let alone accord her the position of the face of the opposition united against Modi. Any rebuff would cost Mamata’s dream run in 2024, which she can ill afford at this time.
I must salute the brave lady and her pragmatism in bulldozing forward, but such ambitious plans must also be practical.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
