He wrote to Sonia Gandhi in December, kicking off the process. The surge of the BJP after 2014 had deepened the sense of doom, but it has now pushed the CPI(M) and the Congress into a relationship. If the Opposition prevents votes from being split three ways, then the Trinamul Congress would have a harder time winning.84 in 2014 from 4.The writer is a senior journalist in Kolkata.United in their battle against the domination of the Trinamul Congress, which is a curious mix of considerable violence deployed to subjugate and a fervent loyalty to Mamata Banerjee, the two parties have suspended their hostilities and arrived at a surprisingly harmonious adjustment. In doing so, it has stepped over the line that had kept it apart from other parliamentary parties in India and accepted that to remain relevant it has to change tack when history serves up surprises.The logic is simple. While its popular appeal has dipped and the bellwether Kolkata Municipal Corporation proves this (the BJP ranked third, failing to oust the Left from second place in the 144 seats tally), the dread remains of a new surge in its favour should Narendra Modi redeem himself.The BJP’s gain in vote share in West Bengal rose to 16. In Birbhum, the two parties organised a joint rally in Rampurhat; in Hooghly there have been combined protests against Trinamul Congress’ tyranny.
There the Congress has already announced that Omprakash Mishra will fight Ms Banerjee. The Forward Bloc has given up nine seats and the CPI is prepared to give up two. Every cliché in politics is applicable to the “concrete conditions” (Sitaram Yechury’s favourite phrase) in West Bengal, especially that “there are no permanent enemies in politics”.What has facilitated the “seat understanding strategy” most is the CPI(M)’s admission that it is no longer the party it was in 2009, when the slide became apparent.06 per cent in 2011 at the cost of the Congress as well as the CPI(M). The Congress too knows that on its own it will be further reduced from the nine Assembly seats it has (it had just 9. The Trinamul Congress has 44 per cent of the votes in West Bengal. This is a jump from the number of seats — 68 — that the Congress was allowed to contest in the alliance with the Trinamul Congress in 2011, when negotiations went on interminably. Since the Trinamul Congress is not squeamish about using its power as the ruling party, it will do everything within and outside the code of conduct for elections to ensure that its dominance is not diminished.Every cliché in politics is applicable to the “concrete conditions” (Sitaram Yechury’s favourite phrase) in West Bengal, especially that “there are no permanent enemies in politics”.Predictably, glitches that both sides are anxious to resolve have popped up, with the possibility of “friendly fights” likely in some seats, as in Domkal, Hariharpara and Nabagram in Murshidabad.In adjusting to the partnership with the Congress, there is notable absence of acrimony.
