Mamata shows signs of weakening

With the West Bengal Assembly election a few months away, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee is showing signs of weakening – which may ultimately tell upon her grand concept of a federal front at the national level.

Several factors, the most important of them being the CBI's suddenly speeded up investigation into the Saradha chit fund case, have led to an uncomfortable situation where names of either some TMC functionaries or some other personalities known to be close to the party are now coming to the fore.

It must however be admitted that investigations are going on under orders from the Supreme Court and it is not the time for making any comment on the case.

But the CBI's recent cross-examination of Shankudev Panda, one of the general secretaries of the TMC, did result in knee-jerk reactions from the party. Within a very short time after Shankudev's deposition, he was removed from all the positions he held in the party and the rank and file has been asked not to maintain any contact with him. The media in Kolkata is speculating that Shankudev has taken names of some big wigs in his deposition to the CBI.

Sources point out that Banerjee has become a bit shaky although she is confident of victory in the coming poll. But there is a murmur of disapproval within some influential MPs of the Trinamul Congress about Banerjee's overdrive for forming a federal front at the national level.

Interestingly Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is being uniformly favoured by almost all sections of the TMC as an ally at the national level, while the least acceptance remains for Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Some TMC bigwigs are still not prepared to forget Mualayam Singh Yadav's somersault at the time of the last presidential election. It is also being generally felt in the TMC that Banerjee is still not mature enough for making political moves at the national level.

In her own estimation, Mamata is prepared to write off the BJP's prospects in the next election, an appraisal many of her party members are now not prepared to share.

By Amitava Mukherjee