Hyderabad (Telangana): The rally happened. The hype was there along with the claps. The entire area was literally wrapped in Red flags. With Congress' open palm symbol alongside. The customary raised hand-in-hand photo opportunity portraying solidarity – every box got ticked.
But, was the final message delivered at the Brigade Parade Ground rally of the grand opposition alliance in West Bengal? Did the actual reason behind all these get out today?
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The reason was basically to forge a pre-poll alliance in Bengal. The reason was to give a clarion call to oust the Trinamool Congress and to wipe out the saffron dust gradually settling firmly on the state. Questions have already started to crop up about the real realisation of all attempts after the brouhaha surrounding Indian Secular Front supremo Abbas Siddiqui and the life expectancy of the alliance.
It was midway in the rally that West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Adhir Ranjan Choudhury took the dais. He was delivering his address when Abbas climbed the stairs to the grand stage put up by the Left Front. Immediately Brigade erupted in a rousing welcome to the ISF chief. Adhir stopped his speech and a discordant note was created when he got visibly distracted by the sudden change of the mood among the massive crowd that had descended on the Brigade grounds.
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Then Abbas took the dais and now there was simply not a word of the Congress in his entire speech. In fact, he thundered, “I am here not to beg or appease anyone. I firmly believe in genuine partnership.”
The Left in Bengal had a tough task ahead of them – that of making a new dawn in favour of them after a gap of 10 years. Today's rally was that making their mere existence felt across the state after being decimated by Mamata Banerjee in 2016. All preparations were there, several rounds of reiki were done of the grounds, the speakers' list was meticulously prepared. Even the Left was desperate to shed off its anti-youth label with a welcome presence of Aishe Ghosh, Badsah Maitra, Dipshita Dhar, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and others. Never did a Left's Brigade rally saw so many SFI, DYFI leaders on stage. The remedial steps were there, signals were aplenty about a course correction, but in the end, a murmur still lingered in the vast Brigade grounds – will this alliance last?
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Abbas Siddiqui was practically accorded a grand welcome by the Left leaders. From a bear hug from Mohammed Salim to warm handshakes by D Raja, Surjya Kanta Mishra and Biman Bose, welcome gestures were galore on stage. But, no Congress leader, be it, Adhir Chowdhury or Abdul Mannan, made any gesture at all. Through leader after leader called for a firm alliance of the Left-Congress-ISF, but the fault lines were there at the display.
The Brigade grounds has seen many customary photo-opportunities of leaders with the last in as late as 2019 when Mamata Banerjee had arranged a grand alliance rally against the BJP with the presence of HD Devegowda, Chandrababu Naidu. Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge, Arvind Kejriwal and many others. But, when the results came, it showed that photo-ops don't always turn to votes. BJP romped home with its best-ever figure of 18 seats from Bengal. Today's photo-op on the Left dais could also turn bleak if the fault lines keep widening among the alliance partners – especially between the Congress and ISF.
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Soon after the rally, Abbas said he has information that Congress president Sonia Gandhi is equally interested in the grand alliance and it was only getting delayed due the grand old party's state leadership. His target was clearly Adhir Choudhury and Abdul Mannan, but there is an underlying threat that the longevity of the alliance could be a fragile one.
Trinamool Congress is presently bleeding in Bengal. BJP is also in dire need of face to go to the polls and are grappling with Suvendu Adhikari and Dilip Ghosh. It was a ripe moment to go the people with a credible Left Front-Congress alliance along with Abbas Siddiqui's ISF. But, the battle of nerves between Adhir and Abbas could cost dearly for the already fledgeling grand alliance in 2021 poll-bound Bengal.
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