KOLKATA: In the wake of the rout suffered by the Congress in the Bihar assembly elections, a senior leader of the Trinamool Congress, an important partner in the INDIA bloc, wants the party supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to lead the anti-NDA political alliance.
The Congress won only six of the 61 assembly seats it contested in the Bihar elections. Veteran Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee has already started batting for his party chief Mamata soon after the results in Bihar were announced on Friday.
“I think the time has come to consider Mamata Banerjee to lead the INDIA bloc to fight against the BJP. It has no future under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership in the coming days,” Kalyan told TNIE on Saturday.
“It is my personal view. I don’t know what will be my party leadership’s future stand on the issue. We should focus on the forthcoming elections in our state in 2026 and will win again for fourth time with an electrifying majority,” the Trinamool MP said.
A Rajya Sabha member belonging to the ruling party in the state, who requested anonymity, backed Kalyan's view, saying, “We have been defeating the BJP in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Bengal six times since 2011 when we formed the government in the state. Our leader Mamata Banerjee knows how to defeat the saffron party again and again and her leadership will guide the opposition in the INDIA bloc.”
Asked about the leadership issue in the INDIA bloc, another veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy told TNIE from Hyderabad, “Congress itself should decide who can lead the national opposition alliance. It’s their lookout.”
Meanwhile, Satabdi Roy, a four-time MP of the party, said, “I think our party leadership will decide on the INDIA issue before the coming winter session in Parliament.”
Political observers said the Trinamool Congress had sent signals that it was not enthused by Rahul Gandhi’s leadership of the INDIA bloc.
“Significantly, no Trinamool Congress leader was sent to Bihar to campaign for Tejashwi Yadav and his party RJD in the assembly polls in the state because the ruling party of Bengal was not happy with Rahul’s leadership in the bloc,” said an election analyst requesting anonymity.
Responding to Banerjee, Adhir Chowdhury, Congress leader and former president of the party's Bengal unit, said, “Let the Trinamool Congress clear its stand officially on the issue. Otherwise I won’t comment anything about the personal views of their MPs like Kalyan Banerjee.”