Churchill Alemao, the lone NCP MLA from Goa, joined the TMC on Monday. This comes after Mamata Banerjee's meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar only ten days back.
Alemao was quoted by local media as saying he would be recognised as a TMC MLA after a notification was issued in two-three days.
What can one infer from Alemao’s move?
When Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi met Banerjee at 10 Janpath some months back, there was curiosity over the outcome of the meeting.
But Banerjee soon had the Gandhis in panic mode as she started breaking the Congress in the Northeast, Goa and other states.
One could assume that if the Banerjee-Pawar meeting was cordial and friendship was extended, Prashant Kishor would not have hit the NCP hard in Goa, where the NCP is not a big player. Kishor is on the job of poaching from parties that have refused to accept Banerjee as their leader.
Pawar, reportedly, did not show interest in Banerjee's bid to head a coalition against the BJP that would exclude the Congress. If Pawar had signed up with Banerjee, it would have made the Maharashtra government unstable. Pawar has had a steady relationship with the Gandhis even if he had attempted to prevent Sonia from becoming the prime ministerial candidate in 1999, but made a sudden U-turn in 2004.
According to sources, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray did not rebuff Mamata Banerjee, but he did not offer any commitments. Uddhav did not meet Banerjee, but his son Aaditya Thackeray did.
An ambitious Banerjee is now in Goa and is expected to vigorously campaign in the upcoming assembly election with the TMC’s partner MGP.
Back home, she would also campaign in the Kolkata Corporation elections, slated to be held on December 19.
also read
- Mamata Banerjee’s soldiers and the SIR storm: Inside Panskura’s high-stakes battle
- Panihati: Will RG Kar victim’s mother contesting for BJP trouble Mamata?
- West Bengal voter list chaos: Supplementary SIR list sparks outrage and confusion; Mamata Banerjee slams ECI
- ‘EC’s letterhead has a BJP seal?': Mamata Banerjee hits out at ECI on seal row ahead of WB Assembly poll campaign
- TMC manifesto unveiled: Mamata Banerjee pitches West Bengal's economic growth plan for the next decade
While the temperature in Kolkata on Monday suddenly dropped by 4 degrees, the political temperature is rising.
The question is whether Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who had taken a keen interest in the Hyderabad Corporation elections, would take the Kolkata Corporation elections seriously.