During the Winter Session of Parliament, the Trinamool Congress is most likely to abstain from any concerted action against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with the Congress.
Mamata Banerjee, leader of the Trinamool Congress and chief minister of West Bengal, is set to travel to New Delhi. She will be present on December 5 at a gathering called by the Union Government to inform the heads of all political parties on India’s G20 leadership. The meeting will be presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During her visit, Banerjee might potentially have a separate meeting with Modi.
On November 30, the opening day of the Winter Session of Parliament, she is likely to preside over a meeting of the Trinamool Congress’s legislators. The gathering has been called to discuss the party’s plans for the current Session in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Broad instructions, however, have already been given to Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs. Sources within the party claim that they have been instructed to continue criticizing the BJP-led government on matters pertaining to state and national interests while avoiding any cooperation with Congress.
The BJP-led Government, which intended to introduce 16 new Bills during the Winter Session of Parliament and get seven others passed, is likely to benefit from the TMC’s policy.
The TMC Rajya Sabha MPs are unlikely to attend any meetings called by Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congressman who was elected as the party’s president and is anticipated to remain the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House.
Similarly to this, if a coordinated action by the Opposition against the Government is started or led by the Congress, Banerjee’s MPs in the Lok Sabha are likely to avoid it. The West Bengal Congress Committee’s Adhir Chowdhury serves as the party’s leader in the lower house of parliament. In the West Bengal political arena, Chowdhury has been Banerjee’s fiercest rival and a harsh critic of the TMC and its leader.
While criticizing the Amit Shah-led union ministry of home affairs and other conspiring BJP leaders for misusing investigation agencies like the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to target and harass TMC leaders, including several members of her government, Chowdhury had lashed out at Banerjee after she had given Modi a clean bill of health. As investigations into allegations of corruption by several TMC leaders had shattered her carefully cultivated image of being a politician with honesty and integrity and exposed the reality, he had claimed that Banerjee had been reaching out to Modi out of desperation.
However, the TMC will continue to coordinate with the other opposition parties in both Houses, including the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party, and the Shiv Sena, according to the sources. A senior TMC leader declared that the party would stand shoulder to shoulder with other parties who were not affiliated with the BJP and bring up issues affecting the general public in both Houses of Parliament, but it would not allow the Congress to assume control of the opposition’s leadership.
Banerjee’s party had adopted the same stance during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, abstaining from any coordinated action against the administration that was directed or begun by Congress. It did not go to any of the Congress-called meetings of the opposition parties. However, it voiced opposition to the suspension of the opposition MPs from the Rajya Sabha alongside the Congress and other parties.
News Mania Desk
