By IANS
Kolkata/New Delhi : After months of keeping the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leadership on the edge, Trinamool Congress (TC) chief Mamata Banerjee Thursday finally took the plunge and severed her nine-year long association with the opposition grouping.
Banerjee did not explicitly state her reasons for the final break-up, except asserting that her party would “try to help” minorities. She also said her party would “go it alone for now”.
However, TC insiders told IANS that Banerjee’s step set the ground for a political realignment, which could possibly see her party side with the Congress in future elections.
Publicly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the NDA, refused to comment on the TC stepping out of the fold. But frontline leaders said the move was expected and it was only a question of time when she would make the momentous announcement.
“We knew it all along. But we thought she (Banerjee) would stick with us at this point when we are leading a campaign against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the nuclear deal,” said a senior BJP leader in New Delhi.
“This is an embarrassment, there is no doubt. But we understand the compulsion of coalition politics,” added another leader.
For the BJP, Banerjee’s departure could well prove to be a double whammy as its ties with another ally, the Shiv Sena, have also been strained for nearly two months – especially after the Sena supported UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil in the presidential election on the ground that she was a Maharashtrian.
The Indo-US nuclear deal has brought relations between the two to the threshold of a fresh standoff, after the rift between the allies over the president’s election.
Although the Sena leadership has not made its stand on the deal public, party mouthpiece Saamna has been unequivocal in its support.
“Everyone should be supporting the deal. It is in India’s interest,” Saamna has written.
Sena MPs, with the exception of Manohar Joshi, also missed a crucial meeting in Delhi last week to discuss the NDA’s strategy on the deal and did not join the BJP-led walkout in parliament.
Banerjee chose a public meeting, while addressing a Madrassa Students Union in Kolkata, to make her declaration.
“I want you to know that we have severed our ties with the NDA,” she said.
“I had joined the alliance as I had great love and respect for former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But, now we want to stand on our feet and would like to go it alone this time.”
Banerjee said she had wanted to sever ties with the alliance long back, but was persuaded to stay back by senior NDA leaders.
“After the riots in Gujarat (in 2002), I had wanted to sever ties with the NDA. I had demanded the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and even persuaded Vajpayee to remove him, but the alliance did not heed to my request then,” Banerjee said.
Reacting to her announcement, BJP West Bengal chief Rahul Sinha said: “It is nothing but vote bank politics. Mamata is trying to woo the minority population with an eye on the panchayat election. If she wanted to sever her ties, she should have called a press conference to make her announcement.”
However, the Congress welcomed the move. “We were averse to joining hands with her as she had links with NDA. Now, we will not have any problem in forging ties with her,” Pradip Bhattacharjee, West Bengal Congress chief, told reporters.
Banerjee had joined hands with Congress before the 2001 Lok Sabha elections, but the alliance came to an end after her party fared miserably at the polls.