Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has been busy making calls down south to take forward her hopes of cobbling together a Federal Front. She recently approached Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to jointly oppose the Centre’s plan to rope in private players to manage the operations of Kolkata and Chennai airports. She also spoke to YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s mother, Vijayamma, who is also the working president, to join forces for Lok Sabha elections next year.
“The future belongs to regional forces like the YSRCP and the TMC,” a press release quoted Banerjee as telling Vijayamma. “She (Banerjee) proposed that TMC, YSR Congress and other such parties can come together for the snap polls, which are likely to be held in November. Mamata Banerjee has asked Y S Vijayamma to take the issue to Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and obtain his opinion on the issue,” the release said. TMC sources said that Didi also enquired about the case due to which Jagan was in jail and criticised the UPA government for misusing the CBI.
Banerjee has also tried to reach out to Jayalalithaa and wants to lodge a joint complaint on the issue of private parties entering the airport operations. The West Bengal Chief Minister wants to pen a joint letter along with her Tamil Nadu counterpart to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to protest the move. “We have already formed a joint forum of trade unions to protest this decision taken by the government. This decision is basically giving away public property to private players... Since both the CMs are opposed to this move, it makes sense for them to come together and strengthen their protest,” said Saugata Roy, TMC MP and Chairman of the Joint Forum of Employees Unions and Associations of Officers (AAI).
But the TMC is yet to hear positively from either party. With Jayalalithaa travelling outside Chennai and YSRCP’s openness to align with the UPA post-elections, Didi’s overtures have till now not borne fruit. Before looking south, Banerjee had first tapped her peers in eastern India, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Though both the JD(U) and BJD haven’t closed any possibilities, they are still to whole-heartedly endorse Banerjee’s “alliance of regional parties” platform.
“It is still work-in-progress. Mamata is sounding out these allies and letting them know that she will be interested in bringing them together should there be an opportunity to put together an alternative front,” a TMC leader said.
Didi’s aggressive alliance-soliciting has put the Left in a bind which has historically seen itself as the forger of an alternative front, if any. “An alternative front cannot be formed by merely announcing it. Such a front can only become successful, if it is built on the basis of alternative policies and a common programme. Without the Left, there can’t be alternative policies,” Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) Politburo member had recently said in Kolkata.
- The Sunday Standard