Sonia’s presidency a boon for Congress relations with regional leaders

Sonia Gandhi’s return as the interim president of Congress may have exposed the many vulnerabilities the party currently faces. But, her return has emboldened many regional leaders, who were once part of the Congress or were close to her, who later could not accept the leadership of Rahul Gandhi wholeheartedly.

The likes of Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav are believed to have expressed satisfaction at Sonia taking over as the Congress president, though the feeling may be a short-lived one. Other leaders like Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Sharad Yadav are closer to Sonia than Rahul. Sonia has connections in NDA as well, Ram Vilas Paswan an example. So, will there be a political realignment in Delhi? Chances are very low at a time when the BJP’s massive second term victory has not yet faded from public memory.

Rahul, while taking over from Sonia, distanced himself from many senior leaders of the party, and brought in young and dynamic leaders. Regional leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar could not accept his leadership style; distance increased between their parties and Congress, despite the fact they all had a common enemy in the BJP. The Congress got a jolt when its leaders came out one by one, supporting the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state.

With Sonia back at the helm, the Congress hopes to repair relationships with leaders like Banerjee. Sources have confirmed that Banerjee spoke to Sonia after she was chosen the interim Congress president. Banerjee will try to bring Congress under her control in West Bengal. But, the Congress has already decided to go for an alliance with the left in the upcoming assembly byelections, when three seats will go to poll. Kaliagunj (Malda) in North Bengal was vacated by BJP MLA Khagen Murmu, Kharagpur was vacated by BJP's Dilip Ghosh, and Mahua Moitra of the TMC vacated Karimpur. Two of the three seats are from North Bengal, where BJP swept the last Lok Sabha election, while the other one is in Karimpore, vacated by TMC's Mahua Moitra. Earlier, Rahul had asked the Congress leadership in Bengal to move closer to the left. As a result, Congress state president Somen Mitra had already decided to go for a alliance with the left parties—just two years away from assembly elections. The Congress and left parties have also started joint political programmes and rallies in Bengal.

Will there be a triangular alliance consisting of TMC, Congress and CPI(M) in the upcoming election? The CPI(M) state committee of West Bengal earlier rejected the proposal, saying that the CPI(M) considered TMC “a threat to democracy and secularism like BJP”.

Banerjee had earlier invited Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to join her “secular rally” in West Bengal. But, the Kerala chief minister declined the invitation as the state leadership of his party is opposed to such a proposal. However, that did not prevent Vijayan from meeting the TMC chief in Delhi last year.

Though Sonia Gandhi might not remain the Congress president for more than a year, she will definitely better relationships with other alliance partners. Sonia played a pivotal role in 2004, assisted by communist patriarch H.S. Surjeet, to string together a massive alliance against BJP, which she had failed to do in 1999 when Atal Behari Vajpayee’s 13-month-old government fell by just one vote in Lok Sabha, and the NDA government was voted back to power after a mid-term election. She repaired that mistake and brought back UPA, which ruled for ten years by bringing in leaders like Sharad Yadav, Paswan and Mamata Banerjee, even if the left had to quit the alliance owing to the nuclear deal.

Now, a fresh bonhomie is in sight as Sonia could possibly string together an alliance of opposition parties to deal with the BJP in parliament. Enthusiasm of leaders like Banerjee and Pawar hints at a new beginning.