Opposition woes

 Trinamool Congress is poaching on Congress leaders in various states in order to spread its wings beyond West Bengal with defectors while its supreme leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is snubbing Sonia and children and blasting Rahul; exposes the biggest chink in the armour of the so-called anti-BJP opposition. These multi-pronged attacks on the Congress has been blamed on India’s famous poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who fashioned a hat-trick for Mamata in West Bengal. After helping Mamata retain power for the third consecutive term by overwhelming the BJP challenge, Prashant Kishor wanted to join the Congress and hoped to make it the fulcrum of anti-BJP unity. Prashant hoped his role in the Congress will be that of a helmsman and virtually head the party without check and balances and ultimately become a national leader. Kishor’s proposal was nonetheless shared by the Gandhis with some senior leaders of the party. Though the senior leaders favoured his induction yet, his conditions for a virtual takeover of the party were not acceptable. Kishor understands that of all parties Congress had the greatest potential and national structure to catapult him as a national leader. Among the opposition parties, Congress still commands the highest percentage of popular vote at 20 percent and it will not lose that at least for sometime. Kishor has turned to the TMC to pursue his political ambition. Chances are that the politically wily Mamata Banerjee will make full use of the poll strategist and yet one day, he may find himself in a situation which he may not be presently thinking of. Kishor has engineered the defections of veteran Congress leaders- former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faliero, AICC mahila president Sushmita Dev from Silchar, former Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma and 11 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya and some key leaders in Tripura and south India. The Congress is also the best hunting ground for defectors for the BJP and now TMC. TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s latent national ambition has received a boost with Kishor meeting potential defectors. Congress is suffering mainly because there is no clear leader. Sonia continues to be the interim president but Rahul decides in consultation with his inner coterie such as Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Randip Surjewala etc. The coterie only serves Rahul’s interests and not the party’s. This has caused more confusion within the rank and file as recent developments in Punjab had shown. It would seem that so long as this problem continues in the Congress, it is going to cause more frustration. However, Sonia is certain that only Rahul and no one else can be her successor and so do the sycophants feel. Rahul’s leadership is frustrating other anti-BJP parties who see no sense and no hope in Congress as the main fulcrum of opposition unity. Understandably, the TMC has exploited this and propping up Mamata as the alternative and the TMC as the fulcrum for opposition unity. However, no matter how many defectors from the Congress join the TMC, it will still not make Mamata Banerjee an alternative to Modi nor TMC a favoured party beyond Bengal.