Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 12: Speculation is rife whether some of the smaller parties, particularly those who broke away in the past from the Congress, will return back to the Grand Old Party fold, particularly the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) (NCP-SP) in Maharashtra, both decimated over the years.
The speculation has gained currency amid the unfolding developments in the TMC which is facing existential crisis as a majority of its legislators in West Bengal and Parliamentarians in Delhi are breaking away from the original party and creating separate bloc both in the State Assembly and in the Lok Sabha and extending support to the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre.
While Congress Organisation General Secretary KC Venugopal on Thursday rejected the Trinamool merger talks as “baseless rumours” and the TMC chief and the former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee dismissed the suggestion as wild speculation, Congress party’s senior leader in Maharashtra Nana Patole has dropped a clear hint that the move may be afoot.
His suggestion also brought cryptic remarks from the Maharashtra chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis that the Congress was a “sinking ship” and no smart leader would opt to board a sinking ship, but many political observers believe that Mr Patole’s remarks was not mere speculations and were based on some political manoeuvres.
Patole has said the “like-minded parties” were preparing to merge with the Congress. “Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee are making up their mind for a merger with the Congress,” Patole told reporters insisting that it would not be an alliance, but a merger. Patole went on to claim that a proposal for NCP-SP’s merger has already been made by Sharad Pawar and was in the works.
“The proposal from the NCP, from Pawar Saheb, had already been given earlier but got delayed due to some reasons. But I feel that with whatever is happening in the country’s politics right now… to stop the large-scale division of votes… all parties that have secular, pluralistic ideologies should unite,” he stated. “This process has now begun at the national level, and whether it is the Trinamool Congress or Pawar Saheb all are now showing the willingness to merge with Congress,” Patole claimed.
A few days ago, similar sentiment was echoed by Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut when he urged Sharad Pawar to “take the lead” in merging the smaller parties, which came into existence after splitting away from the Congress, back with the Grand Old Party. “Congress has to be strong, and leaders of smaller parties that emerged from it must understand the situation,” Raut had said.
Calling it a “good proposal,” NCP-SP leader and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, had said only time would tell what happens next. “Let it rain first, then we’ll see whether to take an umbrella or a raincoat,” she had said in response without rejecting Raut’s proposal.
Adding to the political chatter, senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has also called on the smaller parties to merge with the Congress and accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader. “What Sanjay Raut said has merit. The time has come. All those parties that became regional parties after separating from the Congress should rejoin, and they should wholeheartedly accept Rahul Gandhi as the leader,” Gehlot said.
“There should be a message across the country that the leader of the INDIA alliance is Rahul Gandhi. This message should be clear-cut. Then the people will make you successful. They see that on one side is Narendra Modi ji and on the other side is Rahul Gandhi ji. If there is a clear-cut message that all political parties have together accepted Rahul Gandhi as their leader, then you will see that the voting pattern in the country will change,” the former Rajasthan chief minister stated.
Both Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee had broken away from the Congress and had floated their regional outfits. While Mamata Banerjee started Trinamool Congress in 1998 after breaking away from the Congress, Sharad Pawar founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999. He established the party alongside PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar after being expelled from the Congress over the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s “foreign origin.” Tariq Anwar later returned to the Congress and is currently an MP.
Sharad Pawar’s NCP suffered the similar fate as Trinamool is confronted presently when Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar led a rebellion against the patriarch in 2023. He claimed and won the NCP name and symbol after securing the support of the majority of party’s MLAs and went on to ally with the BJP & Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and nationally.
The rumour mill was set abuzz after back-to-back TMC-Congress meetings this week– first of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee with Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday and then between TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee with Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.
According to sources, at the Wednesday’s meeting that lasted for one and a half hours, Abhishek Banerjee conveyed that Trinamool wanted a strong alliance and accept Rahul Gandhi’s leadership in the opposition grouping. Congress has made clear that any proposal for a merger must come from the Trinamool and that it is not pushing for such a move.
In his cryptic remarks ridiculing the reported merger move, Mr Fadnavis on Friday described the Congress as a “sinking ship” and even expressed the confidence that opposition consolidation would mean more political space for the BJP, he told reporters. “Congress is a sinking ship, and no one ever sets foot on a sinking ship. But if anyone does, we have nothing to lose,” the CM stated. Fadnavis said the BJP has adopted a wait-and-watch approach. “Even if Opposition parties step into the Congress, which is a sinking ship, we will get more political space,” he added.
