In the last week of January, when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will enter West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress leadership is likely to give it a miss. From the start, the Trinamool had made it clear that it would not join the Congress party’s yatra, on account of not being properly invited to join the event and other reasons. Though Congress and Trinamool are both part of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) Opposition bloc, the relationship between the two parties has been rocky.
Since she broke away from the Congress party in 1998 to set up Trinamool Congress, party chairperson Mamata Banerjee has often accused the former of not being able to put up a fight against the Left parties in West Bengal till 2011 and against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.
The only period of respite from the adversary was in 2009-2012 when the Trinamool was part of the Congress-led UPA-II government at the Centre and the two parties came together to defeat the 34-year Left Front government in West Bengal. A year after Trinamool came to power in the State in 2011, it withdrew support for the UPA-II coalition and Congress Ministers resigned from the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal.
