By Tirthankar Mitra
Politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes. Yet, the unthinkable is now happening. The Trinamool Congress (now MAITC) and the CPI(M) closing ranks against BJP was once considered an impossibility in West Bengal. But fences are being mended between the two parties, though the unlikely coalition is still a long way off, even if now in the realm of possibilities.
Ever since Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress met with an ignoble poll defeat in the 2026 Assembly elections, she had sent out feelers to all political outfits, including CPI(M), to make common cause against the BJP, which swept the Assembly elections and unseated her, despite allegations of massive voter deletion after the contested Special Intensive Revision (SIR). But, at that time, there were few takers for Mamata’s overture.
It is a fact that Trinamool, CPI(M) and Congress already share the national opposition space within the INDIA bloc. But the coalition partners have been long locked in the state-level electoral battle with each other, with CPI(M) and Congress emerging as major electoral losers, bagging merely one assembly constituency each in the 2026 state polls.
But such has been the fallout of the unexpected poll debacle and TMC’s internal implosion leading to the bitter split, engineered from outside or not, that Banerjee set aside her pride to give a clarion call for Opposition unity against the saffron camp. Mamata Banerjee has now descended from her high horse of undefeated political supremacy.
Hence, when CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby made affirmative signs to his party’s once implacable political opponent, the Trinamool Congress chief, it invited amazement. For once, CPI(M) and TMC trained their ire against a common political foe, the BJP.
The state CPI(M) unit headed by Md Salim has often been worsted in poll battle and the negotiation table by Banerjee. Avoiding any criticism of Baby, the West Bengal CPI(M) has made no secret of its opposition to the current overture of the former chief minister.
This is in keeping with the political ground realities of West Bengal, where CPI(M) has a long history of taking on the Trinamool.
Clashes between cadres of the two political outfits were often in the news. An attack on the former CM when she was leading a procession at Hazra crossing hit the headlines, marking her return to political relevance after the poll reverse.
It was against this backdrop that on September 23 that Baby wrote to Mamata Banerjee about how the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar disregarded 14 objections raised by two other election commissioners about SIR of electoral rolls, as reported by Indian Express. She responded positively.
She also gave him a call. A question mark remains hanging on whether Baby’s overture will go down well with the West Bengal unit of CPI(M) whose supporters have borne the brunt of Trinamool’s political violence for 15 years.
Aware of the unease among the rank and file over the feeler sent to Banerjee by Baby, CPI(M)’s state secretary Md Salim stated that the developments did not hint at an electoral understanding. In this situation, the country comes first, he added.
The CPI(M) state secretary knows well he cannot announce an electoral understanding on his own. It would amount to breach of party discipline and alienating the rank and file.
Next came the broadsides from the saffron camp. Old rivalries were stoked.
Trinamool was born resisting the political violence of the CPI(M) cadres, said Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who had been with Banerjee in both the Congress and Trinamool. And now, the old rivals are coming together, he added, mockingly.
Underscoring his point, CM Adhikari cited several instances of alleged CPI(M) atrocities on Congress and Trinamool supporters. They include alleged chopping off hands of Congress activists at Kendua in Howrah and bludgeoning to death nine farm workers at Suchpur in Birbhum.
But CM Adhikari has reasons to worry. If Trinamool and CPI(M) do come together and get their poll arithmetic right, it can put BJP up to a stiff test.
Past incidents of violence and bitter rivalry have been set aside by political leaders in West Bengal. Traditional rivals, Congress and CPI(M), fought 2016 Assembly elections as allies against Trinamool Congress.
The chief minister is also chary of CPI(M) and TMC, read Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, coming together. Once headed by Banerjee, in the Trinamool Cabinet, Adhikari had to face the Congress-Left Opposition in the Assembly and outside it.
Already MAITC has extended its support to the Congress nominee at Nandigram after its own candidate withdrew. The Congress candidate Milan Pradhan has been promptly arrested by the Adhikari dispensation. But the hatchet appears to have been buried between Congress and MAITC at the moment.
The last thing the BJP wants is CPI(M)’s proximity to a meaty alliance in the making. Further salvoes are expected from the saffron camp with CM Adhikari raising more instances of old face-offs.
He does not want uncomfortable issues being raised and sharp questions asked. More so, if they are from the three Opposition parties.
Allegations of impropriety on the part of the CEC seem to have resurrected a moribund Opposition. Now, it has to transform public disaffection into votes. (IPA Service)
