The trend signals how the party could be going back to the era where its regional satraps used to be influential and could stand up to even such leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel.
Several
of the Congress party state units are currently at odds with the
central leadership over the question of striking alliances and seat
adjustments.
The
trend signals how the party could be going back to the era where its
regional satraps used to be influential and could stand up to even
such leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
However, this had changed after Indira Gandhi came to lead the
Congress
and systematically replaced strong leaders in the state with darbaris
and sycophants.
West
Bengal
In
West Bengal, the Congress state unit is split in two over whether it
should align with the Trinamool Congress or not. A section of the
party's leadership wants to have a seat adjustment with the Trinamool
Congress.
However,
senior state unit leaders like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury oppose aligning
with the Trinamool. Chowdhury also has the support of the rank and
file, which has suffered the brunt of the alleged violence by
Trinamool cadres on Congress workers in villages and towns.
Cadres
of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharatiya Janata Party
have also been the target of Trinamool's purported political
violence. The Congress workers on the ground want their party to
align with the CPI (M) to fight Trinamool unitedly. They argue the
cadres of the two parties, the Congress and CPI (M), are already
fighting Trinamool's alleged political violence unitedly on the
ground.
A
three-cornered fight in West Bengal would also better serve the
national objectives of the central leadership of the Congress. It
would prevent the BJP, which is on the surge, to capture the
opposition space in the state. This will help a split in
anti-incumbency votes and ensure BJP wins lesser number of seats than
it would in a bipolar contest.
The
state unit of the Congress met party chief Rahul Gandhi last week.
Gandhi met each of them individually to understand the situation.
Story
By BS
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