Rahul Gandhi attacks Mamata: The high command’s Bengal dilemma

Kolkata, March 25: Congress president Rahul Gandhi recently came to West Bengal for a campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He addressed a packed rally in Malda in central Bengal where he lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee government of the state.

Rahul even compared Banerjee with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying both only make promises to the people but do little in reality. He asked people whether the state government has done anything on employment or farmers' distress and said that while Bengal used to run for a party in the Left Front rule, it runs for an individual in the Banerjee years.

Rahul Gandhi's attack on Banerjee showed once again the dilemma that the Grand-Old Party faces in Bengal. In January, when Banerjee had called for a mega rally in Kolkata, it was the same Congress president who had extended her support even though he was personally not presented.

The target then was a common front against Modi. But in Malda, the Congress president picked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo as his target and even likened her to the prime minister.

To the common man, such political strategy looks comic. It only adds to the Opposition's lack of credibility. But on the real ground, the Congress's top leadership has very little option other than indulging in contradiction.

Malda remains one of Congress' last few strongholds in Bengal

Malda, along with Murshidabad, remains the Congress' last few bastions in Bengal. To those who feel the crowd that had assembled there to hear Rahul was actually far less than shown, probably by the spin doctors, it is better to remind them that such a thick crowd is not unexpected in Malda since it has been an impregnable fort of the Congress over the decades.

The legacy of the iconic leader ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury still lives on in those parts and even Mamata Banerjee, who is the undisputed queen of Bengal at the moment, has not been able to breach it.

In such a constituency, it becomes necessary for the Congress president to attack the local ruling party because it is the main opponent of his party here and not the BJP.

The attack was sharp even more this time since the Congress is in danger of losing one of the two Malda seats - Maldaha Uttar - as the sitting MP Mausam Benazir Noor recently shifted base to the TMC.

Rahul even spoke on that issue during his rally to provoke the voters to punish the 'betrayer' but it will be interesting to see if the Congress can indeed overcome the challenge as Noor's joining the TMC is likely to divide the Congress' vote bank here.

Noor, niece of Ghani Khan will be challenged in this seat by her cousin Isha Khan Choudhury and it could be Banerjee who stands to benefit the most.

Or it might help the BJP.

To draw an analogy, the TMC had fielded Satya Ranjan Dasmunsi, the brother of late Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi from Raiganj, another Congress stronghold, in 2014. The fight between Priya's wife Deepa Dasmunsi and his brother saw the Congress losing its seat to the Left's Mohammad Salim. The same could happen in Maldaha Uttar this time.

Rahul Gandhi's attack on Mamata in Malda was more of a scheduled script because he can not afford to upset the local factions of the Congress in Bengal that are staunch critics of the TMC chief because they feel insecure about Banerjee's growing power. So the Congress's central leadership has to adopt a two-pronged strategy of praising Banerjee at the central level but attack her at the local level.