As Trinamool gobbles up the opposition, is Bengal heading towards one-party rule?

A photograph of Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MP and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, handing out party flags to defectors from the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other Left Front constituents has become a recurring feature in the past two months. There is even talk within the Trinamool about Abhishek Banerjee outperforming Subhendu Adhikari, the chief architect of the defections, in front of the media. But that is just the subtext to the main narrative.

In West Bengal’s evolving politics, a floodgate has suddenly opened and hordes of opposition leaders of all hues are deserting their parties and principles and joining the ruling Trinamool.

Since June, when the second Trinamool government under Mamata Banerjee took office, as many as three MLAs – two from the Congress and one from the CPI(M) – and over 200 councillors of municipalities and corporations, 50 district council (zila parishad) members and an unspecified number of panchayat members have switched to the ruling party.

This means that over a dozen municipal bodies ruled by the Congress or CPI(M) have fallen to the Trinamool. Not many more are left to be won as the Trinamool now rules 120 of the state's 126 municipal bodies.

The Congress has also lost three district councils – Malda, Murshidabad and Jalapiguri.

These local bodies – corporations, the three-tier panchayats and zila parishads – are all important pillars of the power structure and a source of party funding.

The defection of the three MLAs has brought the Trinamool’s tally in the House of 292 to 214. The Congress is down to 42 and the Left Front, including the CPI(M), is at 27.

The biggest switch-over was that of Congress heavyweight Manas Bhuniya on September 19. He brought with him four of his party colleagues, including five-time MLA Mohammed Sohrab.

Bhuniya was with the Congress for 46 years, holding on even at times of Left domination. “Mamata Banerjee is the real Congress leader in Bengal,” he told a rally where he formally joined the Trinamool. “The Congress high command should now look into why the West Bengal Congress is disintegrating so rapidly. The Congress headquarter in Kolkata, Bidhan Bhavan, has become a branch office of the CPI(M).”

Zero opposition

More elected representatives from the opposition parties are said to be waiting in the wings to join the ruling party. Senior Trinamool leaders are known to be saying in private conversations that “dil mange more” has become a catchword for party managers engaged in splitting the Left consolidation, winning over Congress stalwarts and offering the allurement of power and position to defectors. The goal seems to be a zero-balance opposition in Bengal.

In small pockets, even saffron cadre have found it rewarding to be under Didi’s umbrella. In Bhawanipore Assembly segment, for instance, the Bharatiya Janata Party had a slender lead over the Trinamool going by the results of the 2014 general elections. But Bhawanipore being the chief minister’s constituency, the Trinamool managers got down to work and managed to engineer defections in the BJP rank and file.

Political circles, however, see this as an opportunity for the BJP to exploit the present scenario, as its cadre base has not been destabilised to the extent of the CPI(M) or Congress.

The CPI(M) veteran and politburo member Biman Bose said many of those deserting the party now had sought proximity to it primarily for power, influence and clout. “Now that the Communists are out of power, they are looking for greener pastures,” he said in Malda recently. “Sadly, the Communists in Bengal will continue to bleed for more time to come.”

On September 18, the 30-year rule of the Congress in Berhampore municipality came to an end with 18 party councillors joining the Trinamool. “Those willing to leave the Congress boat may please do so. The Congress will start from zero,” said a furious Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who hails from Berhampore.

Attacking the ruling party, he said, “Money, job allurement and threat of assaults have been effectively used to split our leaders. There is tremendous pressure on those wanting to hold on to their principles. Fall in line or face the music is the message delivered surreptitiously to every opposition politician.”

Chowdhury alleged that funds had been blocked and the police were being used to exert pressure and “make the party men buckle”.

Absolute power

After the Assembly elections earlier this year, the balance of political power in West Bengal was clear. The supremacy of the Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee was unchallenged – despite the run-up to the elections witnessing a well-orchestrated campaign about the Congress-CPI(M) combine posing a serious challenge to the ruling party.

So, what was the need for the chief minister to adopt a strategy to wipe out all opposition in the state?

This is the question being asked even by a section within the Trinamool.

“This is a reflection of Didi’s penchant for absolute power and authority in running her party and the government,” said a top Trinamool minister on condition of anonymity.

“But they should realise that it runs the risk of a huge cascading effect, should there be a reversal of the tides and a crack in the support base in future. Swinging loyalties are political quicksand.”

Jadavpur University professor Omprakash Misra said he saw “inherent weakness” in the Trinamool’s patronisation of such politics of no-opposition when it already enjoyed an “overwhelming and somewhat crude majority”.

“The Trinamool Congress is bereft of moral principles and the limit to which it is ready to scuttle democratic norms is unprecedented,” he said.

“Why aren’t the defectors going for a fresh mandate? After all, they had won with a different party symbol.”

Political analysts said this trend was previously unseen in West Bengal. Even during the Left Front rule, its constituents often complained about the CPI(M) behaving like a big fish and trying to swallow up the smaller ones in the alliance. But the Communists stopped short of inducting or poaching each other’s workers or leaders. The CPI(M)’s calculative objective was to ensure the constituents thrived under its supervision and control, and did not die out.

A Trinamool legislator recalled Mamata Banerjee’s speech at the opening session of the Assembly in 2011: “This House belongs to the opposition. The speaker should ensure that they are given more time and voice than the treasury bench members.”

In 2016, she seems to have moved far away from that stand of democratic pluralism, he said.