Centre blinks first in face-off with Mamata

Besides, there is the contentious issue of the Cabinet reshuffle which has not at all been to Banerjee’s liking, though the party leaders officially maintained that it had no direct bearing on the resignations. If the Vajpayee Government bows to her pressure and obliges, she comes out a winner. If not, her exit officially and publicly on the ground of a price hike will automatically boost her image, said party insiders. “On the eve of Durga Puja in Bengal, she has ladoo on both her hands,” said a Trinamool leader.

Today, it looked like a battle of nerves and who-blinks-first situation. But the most perceptible change was that Banerjee shut herself at her house on Harish Chatterjee Street throughout the day and till late in the evening. She refused to come out of her house and instead sent messages that she would speak whenever there is a development at Delhi. “We are waiting for signals from Delhi,” she conveyed through her emissaries.

The special spokesman for the party, Pankaj Banerjee, who was deputed by her to brief the press, said: “Negotiations are going on and we hope that the crisis would be resolved by tomorrow.” Asked at what level the negotiations were being conducted, he refused to reply and said: “We still have 24 more hours for the deadline to expire. You have to wait and watch to see the final outcome.”

However, it was clear that both sides were searching desperately for a face-saver out of the imbroglio, confirming that neither the BJP nor Banerjee are ready to sever their ties as yet. At the same time, there is a feeling of disquiet within the BJP that the Government may have only postponed the inevitable and that Mamata will pounce on some other issue to walk out of the NDA on the eve of the assembly elections in West Bengal.

In fact, a section of the party was against succumbing to Banerjee’s demands but with Vajpayee going in for surgery next week, others felt that this was not an opportune time to precipitate a political crisis.

BJP leaders admitted that Banerjee’s political compulsions in West Bengal were driving her to distance herself from the NDA. She seems to have weighed her chances and decided that she needs every last vote of the Congress to defeat a formidable rival like the CPI(M).

However, when asked if the party was holding any talks with the Congress regarding any alliance or electoral adjustments, Pankaj Banerjee said: “Officially, no.” Nitish Sengupta added: “There is no full stop in politics. You can’t have permanent friends and permanent foes.”

With the Congress sticking to its demand that she sever her ties with the BJP for the proposed Mahajot alliance to take off, Banerjee may have no other option. But not just yet.

Elections are still many months away — the new assembly has to be formed by June 2001. In addition, Mamata is hoping for Saifuddin Chaudhary to lead a disgruntled section out of the CPI(M) and form a breakaway group which can join the Mahajot alliance.

Party leaders who hung around Banerjee’s residence throughout the day were heard talking about a life without the BJP. “Who cares for the BJP?” said one, “when we know that by dissociating ourselves from the BJP in Bengal, we can straightaway increase the share of anti-Left votes by another 18 per cent.”

Another pointed out that Banerjee has given a long rope to the BJP by absorbing too many “insults” inflicted by its state unit leaders.

As the tussle intensified, Chief Minister Jyoti Basu rubbed it in on Banerjee by saying at the Writers Buildings: “The Prime Minister himself has said today that Mamata was present at the NDA meeting in which the decision of a petroleum price hike was endorsed.” The Chief Minister’s dig at the Trinamool leader was loud and clear — that she was now trying to wash her hands of an NDA move, of which she had been a part.