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Congress gives up on West Bengal and Bihar units

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

The Congress has given up hope in West Bengal and Bihar.

The party has decided to concentrate only on 15 Lok Sabha constituencies in these two states out of a total of 96 seats. (There are 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal and 54 in Bihar).

Just five months ago, the Congress had decided to revive the party organisation in five states on a priority basis, among them West Bengal and Bihar.

According to a central Congress politician visiting Calcutta, the high command is "disgusted with infighting in these two states" and so these are no more priority areas. Instead, the party will concentrate on Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

The Congress is engineering defections at the grassroots from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh and thus trying to regain lost ground. Its reaction following the attacks on minorities recently might also bring them back to the Congress fold.

Though the Congress is yet to get back the grassroots workers it lost in the last decade, party leaders feel they "are pursuing the correct path" and many such workers will rejoin before the next general election.

The Congress politician said that in Punjab the party is reviving fast as many who had joined the BJP are disillusioned. Moreover, the anti-incumbency factor will help the party in the next election. In the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state, the Congress had been routed.

In Tamil Nadu, the party is keen on an alliance with one or more of the many regional parties. "The chances of such an alliance under Sonia Gandhi's leadership are very bright. We are in a better position than we were under Sitaram Kesri in this regard," he said. Kesri had alienated the party's long-time ally, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, by refusing to deal directly with its general secretary, J Jayalalitha.

But in West Bengal and Bihar the situation within the Congress "is far from satisfactory".

Of the 42 seats in West Bengal, the Congress could win just one, in Malda, from where the state unit president A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury was elected. Mamata Banerjee's newly formed Trinamul Congress bagged seven seats.

Following Somen Mitra's resignation as West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president, Chowdhury was appointed to the post and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was named working president. But this dual leadership seems to have harmed the organisation. The two have been engaged in slanging matches, causing confusion among workers as to who has "Sonia's blessings".

Recently, the party's central leadership decided to do away with this dual leadership and held several rounds of discussions with state politicians. But it could not arrive at a solution.

The senior politician said, "Changing the PCC structure will be of no help because infighting in the West Bengal Congress is deeply imbedded. It will still be Dasmunshi versus Subrata Mukherjee versus Somen Mitra."

The central leadership is interested in a dialogue with Trinamul Congress leader Banerjee. "Even if she does not return to the Congress fold, we can woo her away from the BJP and put up a common front against the ruling Marxists," he said.

While Banerjee has been evasive on the subject, West Bengal Congress politicians are against the alliance. They believe Banerjee's popularity is waning because of her association with the BJP, particularly after the attacks on minorities, and the party will be able to win back the votes that went to her party.

In Bihar too, the Congress has not been able to revive itself. Like Banerjee, senior politician and former chief minister Jagannath Mishra had left the party in protest against Kesri's leadership and formed the Bihar Jagaran Manch on the eve of the last general election.

The Congress received a drubbing at the polls. Sarfraz Ahmed was replaced by Sadanand Singh as Bihar PCC chief. But that too did not help. The politician said the state unit has failed to project Gandhi's leadership among the masses and capitalise on it.

The electorate is still polarised between Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and the BJP-Samata Party alliance. While some central leaders believe the Congress should join hands with the RJD to oppose the BJP, most Bihar Congress politicians are opposed to this idea.

The state unit is riddled with factionalism on caste lines and it is extremely difficult for the Congress high command to salvage the situation.

After assessing the ground situation, the high command now feels it is wasting its energy on these states. And so it has shifted focus to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

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