Sonia Gandhi's call to Mamata upsets Bengal Congress, which prefers Left as ally

NEW DELHI: A telephone call from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday created a flutter in the West Bengal Congress camp as the local unit prefers an alliance with Left parties in the state and has warned against aligning with the ruling Trinamool Congress.

While Banerjee accepted Sonia's invitation to the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Jawaharlal Nehru and has decided to attend it on November 17 and 18, senior state Congress leader Abdul Mannan submitted a note to Sonia the same day, warning against a tie-up with the TMC which he said would be suicidal. He said TMC was fast losing popularity and instead suggested aligning with the Left to stop Congress from being reduced to irrelevance in the state.

Mannan met Sonia and Rahul Gandhi separately and conveyed his views to them. His views are shared by PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury and former PCC chief Pradip Bhattacharya among others.

Downplaying the Sonia-Mamata communication, Mannan told TOI, "This (the phone call) is not about adjustments or understanding. Sonia Gandhi is a tall leader who made a courtesy call to Mamata Banerjee as the host for the programme. She also called other leaders. There is nothing political about it."

Identifying a growing BJP as the main political threat in the state, Congress leaders have suggested that there should be an understanding with the Left since cadres from both Congress and CPM were moving over to BJP after the party's Lok Sabha victory.

While Sonia, according to senior state leaders who met her on Wednesday, is not averse to the idea of aligning with the Left, the fact that she has also opened the doors for erstwhile ally TMC has not gone down well with the state Congress unit. TMC has been under severe pressure because of the Saradha chit fund scam and the terror network in the state.

The marginalised Congress in Bengal is keen to claw back some ground by taking up the space created by the people's disappointment with the ruling party. However, an anti-TMC and anti-BJP stand could not be taken if Congress's central leadership warmed up to Mamata, state Congress leaders feel.

However, with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat also having been invited to the Nehru birth anniversary function, political circles have not ruled out a cornered Congress, TMC and Left getting together to resist BJP.