While the Congress said on Tuesday that its ongoing differences with the Trinamul Congress “will be sorted out”, sources indicated that the party was now on the lookout for “alternatives”.
The Congress is increasingly getting wary of depending on Ms Mamata Banerjee’s 19 Lok Sabha MPs for the UPA-2 government’s survival, particularly after the firebrand Trinamul chief blocked its bid to pass the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha, and earlier efforts to enable 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and insurance refor-ms. But no concrete step is likely before the results of the five state elections are known on March 6.
For the record, Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi stuck to “coalition dharma” on Tuesday: “Even if there are problems, we’ll sort them out... Differences are bound to occur, but they are ultimately reconciled.”
The flashpoint, sources said, came when Ms Ban-erjee opposed the government on the Lokpal issue. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the man Ms Banerjee used to turn to in every crisis, was not “too pleased” with her rabid anti-Congress stance, and since then there has been no meeting between the two.
The Congress leadership has told its West Bengal unit there should be “no compromise” with Trinamul “at this juncture” over the state’s forthcoming panchayat polls.
The Congress, with a 16 per cent voteshare in West Bengal, has told Trinamul (27 per cent voteshare) it was not ready to succumb to its “bullying”. Ms Banerjee had earlier also blocked the Teesta accord with Bangladesh, which adversely affected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to that country.