May 3: For all her volatile temperament, there appears to be some cold logic to Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s decision to go alone for the forthcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections. Ms Banerjee’s decision to go ahead and contest on the Trinamul’s own steam is being seen
as a clever move to bring the Congress votes into her party’s kitty and test the electoral strength of the party before the 2011 Assembly polls.
The Congress high command, however, appears to be confident of a pre-poll alliance with Trinamul for the Assembly polls. Under attack from the Left parties in the Rajya Sabha on Monday over the alleged links of one of its ministers of state, Sisir Adhikary, with a Bangladeshi arms dealer, the Trinamul on its part charged the CPI-M with trying to “lower” its image ahead of municipal elections in Kolkata.
Incidentally, Ms Banerjee had lashed out at the Congress on Sunday in Kolkata, accusing it if acting as an “agent” of the CPI-M. The Congress responded by stating that speaking thus was no an example of “political courtesy”. The Trinamul, having cast the die, would certainly be hoping that it fares well in the 141-member KMC as also the civic polls in others parts of West Bengal. It has already announced the names of party candidates for all 141 seats.
While the Left is in power in the outgoing KMC, the Trinamul clearly would be hoping to make substantial gains given its victories in various elections in the state post the Lok Sabha elections. Party sources said that given the Trinamul’s successes in recent months, Ms Banerjee is now keen to test the waters on her own to see if she can think of going solo for the Assembly polls too.
Therefore, the civic polls will be a litmus test for both Ms Banerjee and her party. However, poll statistics don’t seem to favour Mamatadi’s party though public support might. For in the 2005 KMC polls, the Trinamul had got 25 per cent of the vote share.