Ms Sonia Gandhi, Ms Uma Bharti, Ms Mayawati and now Ms Mamta Banerjee.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are all set to take an interesting turn with four top women politicians jostling for their political space in the state.
The Trinamul Congress has decided to make its political debut in Uttar Pradesh as a part of the fledgling and still insignificant Rashtriya Parivartan Morcha. A high-level delegation of Trinamul Congress, led by Mukul Roy, Sultan Ahmad and K.D. Singh visited Lucknow earlier this week and discussed poll related issues with their party workers in the state.
Party sources confirmed that the Trinamul Congress could contest up to 100 Assembly seats while other constituents of the Rashtriya Parivartan Morcha will mop up remaining seats. Some of the other members of the Morcha include Bhartiya Samaj Party led by Om Prakash Rajbhar and Janwadi Party led y Sanjay Chauhan.
“We are in the process of identifying seats where Bengali voters are in substantial numbers. Ms Mamta Banerjee’s popularity is certainly not restricted to Bengal and Bengalis but Bengalis identify better with her and all that she has done for West Bengal in the past few months,” said a party source.
The Trinamul Congress campaign, interestingly, will focus on the slogan “Behenji (Mayawati) jayengi, Didi (Mamta) ab aayengi” and draw a parallel with the political situation in West Bengal.
“Just like Didi (Mamta) overthrew the tyrannical rule of the Left parties in West Bengal and brought about ‘Poribartan’, she will rout the BSP in Uttar Pradesh and establish a more people-friendly government,” the source added.
Party sources admitted that the Trinamul Congress had not discussed the issue with the Congress yet and was making its UP debut independently. The TMC is a part of the UPA but the alliance obviously will not extend to UP Assembly polls.
Meanwhile, the Trinamul Congress in UP has already set up its party unit and has been gradually expanding its base among the people even though the party has not been very visible in political terms
However, a BSP functionary dismissed the fact that Ms Mamta Banerjee’s UP debut could cause some discomfort to the ruling BSP. “Ms Mamta Banerjee will not make even an iota of difference in UP. She should restrict herself to West Bengal and manage the affairs there. She is not match for Mayawati ji here,” he stated.