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This was one the most interesting stories of last week: the Congress and Trinamool have formed an alliance in West Bengal. Now, I think Mamata Banerjee is something of a joke, and I know she's caused plenty of harm to Bengal with her stand on Singur. But she's still infinitely preferable to the CPM for one simple reason: She's not imprisioned by a failed, dangerous, anti-national ideology. And while I dislike the idea that this might help the Congress, if the Congress does come to power, I'd rather that they were supported by Mamata than the CPM. So, all in all, I'm holding my nose on this one and hoping that Mamata succeeds.
But that brings us to the questions of whether she can succeed, and whether this alliance is the right way to go about it. I'm inclined to think that it won't be enough to allow her to wrest away a majority of Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats, but might just allow her to cut the CPM's current tally of 36 to about 25. But there's a compelling counter-intuitive article in the Pioneer about how the alliance might actually hurt her. Money quote:
In short, the anti-Left space must be hogged. People must be convinced that they’d be only helping the CPI(M) by voting for non-Trinamool candidates. Besides, what is Mamata’s stated strategic objective: ridding Bengal, and by extension India, of Communists. The Leftist scourge cannot be diminished through Lok Sabha seats. She can only do it by polarising Bengal.
But that brings us to the questions of whether she can succeed, and whether this alliance is the right way to go about it. I'm inclined to think that it won't be enough to allow her to wrest away a majority of Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats, but might just allow her to cut the CPM's current tally of 36 to about 25. But there's a compelling counter-intuitive article in the Pioneer about how the alliance might actually hurt her. Money quote:
In short, the anti-Left space must be hogged. People must be convinced that they’d be only helping the CPI(M) by voting for non-Trinamool candidates. Besides, what is Mamata’s stated strategic objective: ridding Bengal, and by extension India, of Communists. The Leftist scourge cannot be diminished through Lok Sabha seats. She can only do it by polarising Bengal.
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