Opposition unity at stake as rift between Congress and TMC wide open

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi was optimistic about the unity of Opposition, but TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has taken political somersault leaving the Congress in the lurch.

New Delhi:Unity between the opposition is at stake as cracks appeared between the Congress and Trinamool Congress on the opening day of the winter session of Parliament. TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was aspiring a pan India expansion wanted to go it alone while the Congress, which wanted to unite all the opposition parties, received a setback before the formation a single platform to take on the BJP government.

Notably, in August this year, the picture seemed to be positive when TMC chief Mamata Banerjee met Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and both conveyed a message of opposition from 10 Janpath. Mamata gave a clarion call to the opposition to unite and fight against the Centre.

But now, the TMC chief, who swept the Assembly polls with a landslide victory by taking on mighty BJP, hoping to replicate the success of party across the country. As a matter of fact, she started welcoming the leaders from other parties, including the Congress, to join her party.

The induction started from Assam where Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev joined TMC and leaders from Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and then Meghalaya where the leader of the opposition in Meghalaya Assembly Mukul Sangma and other MLAs joined the TMC bandwagon.

The cold war is visible during the winter session of Parliament as the TMC has decided to skip the meeting convened by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress staged a protest in front of Gandhi statue on the opening day of Parliament session while the TMC MPs staged a separate protest.

Giving yet another jolt to the Congress, the TMC skipped the meeting called by Mallikarjun Kharge at his office on the premises of Parliament over the suspension of 12 opposition MPs from the Rajya Sabha.

Similarly, for the joint statement of 11 Opposition parties, the TMC chose to distance itself and conducted a separate press conference. The TMC was also absent when Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to the media, along with the other opposition parties MPs inside Parliament over the suspension of Opposition MPs.

Adding insult to injury, Kharge's office reportedly approached the TMC to get approval that their name can be written in the joint statement, but TMC declined the move saying that they are already speaking to the media about it, according to Congress party sources.

Now Kharge has called the opposition parties meeting on the second day of the winter session to finalise the stand of opposition parties on the suspension of MPs from the Rajya Sabha. However, TMC sources are saying they will skip this meeting. This highlights that there is a cold war between the two parties.