From stole to stage: Mamata and Sonia's bond outlasts political upheavals

Although her party has lost the West Bengal assembly elections and is in disarray, Mamata All India Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's personal relationship with Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi remains unaffected.

From presenting Sonia Gandhi with a special stole to inviting her to share the stage at the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)'s press conference, Mamata's bond with the Congress leader – which began during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister – has withstood the test of time and political upheavals.

The former West Bengal chief minister was the only non-Congress leader to speak in the packed press conference. In her usual style, steeped in emotion and theatrics, she vowed to fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar as a "worker", ready to take the battle to any level.

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"Vanish (Gyanesh) Kumar chor hai, daaku hai. He should resign immediately. Let us save democracy and let the security of voting rights be restored. If votes are stolen, then how can a country run," Mamata said.

But amid renewed ties with the Congress, fuelled by the Trinamool (Mamata)'s desperation to remain relevant in a Bengal now dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mamata did not forget to credit Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for his first yatra against "vote chori" in Bihar last year, undertaken with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav.

As Mamata ended her fiery speech, Sonia smiled and patted her in appreciation. Two leaders aware of the details said Mamata sat next to Sonia during the meeting, and the two chatted about key political issues.

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Trinamool (Mamata) leader Derek O’Brien later said that the stole was brought exclusively for Gandhi.

To be sure, the equation between the Trinamool (Mamata) and the Congress had not always been entirely smooth in the recent past.

The two parties had joined the INDIA bloc in 2023 but two years ago, Mamata was the first and only ally to rule out seat sharing with the Congress in Bengal.

The Congress managed a seat pact with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and with the Left in Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections. Neither alliance survived the assembly elections in the two states.

Congress insiders have maintained that Rahul’s equations with Mamata are far from smooth and pointed out that the former had promoted Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury – Mamata’s bête noire – as the president of the West Bengal unit of the Congress for a long time.

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But that equation may also see a change. On Wednesday, Rahul mentioned Mamata and raised the issue of alleged vote theft in Bengal. Rahul also referred to alleged destruction of electronic voting machines (EVMs) when he was in Kolkata – an issue raised by Mamata during the press conference. Mamata, too, lauded Rahul for his yatra in Bihar against “vote chori”.

In the meeting, Rahul emphasised on a broad-based partnership. “We can’t get there alone. You can’t get there alone. But together we will,” he said, in an apparent reference to upcoming political battles and elections. “There is no point in saying who suffered more. This (fighting Prime Minister Modi and Kumar) has to be done by everybody,” he added.

Rahul said he has studied how elections are being manipulated and has begun receiving "serious information" against the government from officials in the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and other agencies, something he claimed did not happen earlier.

Several suggestions to take on CEC Kumar over the contentious Special Investigation Revision came from across the parties.

Mamata and CPIML chief Dipankar Bhattacharya pitched for quick actions on the ground to reach out to the people. Mamata suggested a march to the Election Commission soon after the meeting. She demanded Election Commissioner’s Director General (IT) Seema Khanna’s arrest. She described how violence in Bengal during the poll has spread to education institutes.

Sonia expressed support for both Mamata and Dipankar’s plans.