BJP set to break Trinamool

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, APRIL 14. Reports are making the rounds that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is out to break the former ally, Ms. Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, to get even with her for walking out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the wake of the tehelka expose.

The unconfirmed reports give the impression that the BJP at the Centre has been attempting to grab a few Trinamool MPs known for pro-BJP stance.

Trinamool and local BJP officials admit in private that such an exercise is ``most probably'' under way, but would neither confirm nor deny whether the Trinamool MPs, Mr. Ajit Panja, his brother Dr. Ranjit, Mr. Bikram Sircar and Mr. Nitish Sengupta, are distancing themselves from the party leader, Ms. Banerjee.

A counter-exercise

The Trinamool's announcement of the list of candidates on Friday from the Panja House is being seen as Ms. Banerjee's counter- exercise in retaining them at a time when the poll arithmetic appears to be going against her. At the press conference for the purpose, Dr. Ranjit Panja was present but not Mr. Panja and other MPs.

Reports suggest that Friday late evening, Ms. Banerjee rushed to Dr. Panja's house in Barasat, a few km from the city, and held a one-to-one meeting with him.

Of the four Trinamool MPs, Mr. Ajit Panja is the most senior, an election winner on his own steam, has vast administrative experience and has a soft corner for the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee. Known for his aversion to the Congress, Mr. Panja tried unsuccessfully to dissuade Ms. Banerjee from leaving the NDA.

Mr. Panja was neither seen nor heard in Ms. Banerjee's close circles ever since she had forged an alliance with the Congress.

Neither the Panja brothers nor Mr. Nitish Sengupta were present at the Press Club when Mr. Sudip Bandopadhyay, MP, Ms. Banerjee's present pointman, released the manifesto.

Panja signals voters

Another telltale sign is available in the large number of Bengali calendars that Mr. Panja sends to his voters in his Kolkata Northeast constituency on the eve of every Bengali New Year - this time April 15 - in which he puts down the name of his party and its symbol apart from his name. This year's calendar does not contain the Trinamool's name and symbol. Instead, it has a few lines from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore which buttresses the growing speculations about him.

By contrast, Dr. Ranjit Panja, a prominent skin specialist, has given an insight into the state of relationship by way of a newspaper interview unusually critical of Ms. Banerjee, especially her parting of ways with the BJP.

Mr. Sengupta and Mr. Sircar are believed to be equally disillusioned with the Trinamool leadership and are now in talks with the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, and other senior BJP leaders.

The BJP leadership, it is believed, is not exactly pressing Mr. Panja and company to leave the Trinamool rightaway because it still thinks that Ms. Banerjee would rejoin the NDA after the Assembly election. The picture will, however, get clearer by tomorrow.

``Welcome back to the NDA is how we will greet her when she gets back to us. Right now, all we want is to make her learn the hard way that without the BJP, she stands nowhere,'' a highly-placed BJP source said on condition of anonymity.

Indications are that the Central BJP leadership would try its utmost to make Ms. Banerjee learn the hard way by way of trying to split the Trinamool, put up BJP nominees to spoil Trinamool votes and, of course, show off the resources that could have been at Ms. Banerjee's disposal had she decided to stay on in the NDA.

The Central BJP leadership's principal target in Bengal election is expectedly the Congress which, riding piggyback on the Trinamool, might emerge stronger at the national level and become a threat to it. For the BJP leadership, a truncated Trinamool would serve its purpose in every possible way.

The BJP's thinking that Ms. Banerjee's relationship with the Congress would have been short and bitter stems from the bickerings, squabbles, nasty infighting between the two parties ever since the alliance was forged.

From the Trinamool's standpoint, the alliance could not be avoided as Ms. Banerjee had no one to turn to after she severed links with the NDA. When she left the NDA, she had expected the Vajpayee Government to collapse with the other NDA partners such as the Telugu Desam following suit. Had it so happened, she would have emerged a hero.

But the NDA partners stayed put. Ms. Banerjee, with no option left, tied up with Ms. Sonia Gandhi's Congress.

Ms. Sonia Gandhi may not have known, but the fact is, it is difficult for the Bengal Congress leaders to accept Ms. Banerjee as their leader as well as the future Chief Minister. She is getting to know such sentiments, thanks to the recalcitrant Congress MP, Mr. A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury.

According to analysts, Ms. Banerjee realising that she may have to look at the BJP option after the election, is probably trying to tread cautiously with respect to the BJP. She has neither attacked the BJP in her election manifesto nor spoken against that party in any forum, till date. In fact, Mr. Sudip Bandopadhyay, a close associate, had defended the BJP the other day accusing the country's mainline political parties of ``bankruptcy'' for labelling the BJP ``communal''.

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