After all, state Congress has extended its support to CPI(M) nominee at Dhupguri. In the process, the mutually selected CPI(M) nominee Ishwar Chandra Roy has found himself pitted against Trinamool Congress candidate Nirmal Chanda Roy.

While Congress leaders are campaigning in support of the CPI(M) nominee at Dhupguri, the former has to face a barrage of criticism from it’s rank and file as well as the BJP camp as TMC is a part and parcel of the INDIA alliance. The Congress is indeed in a sticky wicket following the meeting between Rahul and Abhishek.

Eager to conceal its discomfiture at the unexpected turn of events, senior Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said that one should make a distinction between a local read Dhupguri by-poll and a national issue - the INDIA alliance. Our party leaders have hit the campaign trail in support of the CPI(M) nominee as state Congress had supported him before INDIA formation.

Lower down the party hierarchy, there are many takers for Bhattacharya's line of thinking. But the manifestation of its acceptance is not quite to the liking of the state leadership.

Opposition to the TMC is at the top of the agenda of a group of state Congress leaders who are uncomfortable at their party's coexistence with TMC in the INDIA alliance. This group headed by Koustav Bagchi is all for going hammer and tongs against the ruling dispensation of the state.

Seeking anonymity, a member of this dissident group felt that Abhishek calling on Rahul is a clear pointer to the TMC leadership eating its earlier words against the Congress. Indeed the visit of TMC's de facto number two to the former Congress chief's residence is an indication of TMC wooing the Congress at the state level also. Since, no official statement came out of the morning meeting, confusion is spreading more before the by poll day September 5.

Obviously, Banerjee would not have called on Rahul Gandhi sans his aunt, the party supremo Mamata Banerjee green flagging the move, a senior Congress leader said. Compulsions of national politics in which the Congress's importance is undeniable has made her forget that she had dubbed Rahul Gandhi a spring cuckoo.

The visit of Banerjee indicates that the TMC has little option but to play second fiddle to the Congress in the INDIA alliance. But veteran politician that he is, Bhattacharya has distanced itself from this view point.

Not too much should be read into Abhishek calling on Rahul Gandhi at the latter's residence. After all, both are representatives of the next generation leadership of the two parties and exchange of views between them is natural in the backdrop of the formation of INDIA alliance, he felt.

Strangely enough, Bhattacharya's views found support in the Trinamool Congress camp. State agriculture minister and veteran TMC leader, Sovandeb Chattopadhay said that the meeting between the two young leaders is natural in the backdrop of the anti-BJP INDIA alliance.

Yet there remains in the state Congress a group which feels the meeting at the national Capital would send wrong signals to the Congress rank and file in Dhupguri. After all, many in this north Bengal area has been at the receiving end of poll violence allegedly sponsored by Trinamool in the rural polls.

While the CPI(M) leadership refused to comment on the newfound bonhomie between two erstwhile arch political rivals, it admitted that there has been no dearth of enthusiasm and cooperation from the Congress activists and leaders at Dhupguri by-poll campaign. Such support is always welcome as the CPI(M) candidate lost his deposit in the 2021 Assembly election.

But even if the CPI(M) is not unhappy at the state of things at the ground level before the by poll, the talks between Rahul and Abhishek have kept it guessing. After all, the party leadership is only too aware that if the September 8 results go against it, it will provide the national leadership of Congress the leverage to nudge it's state unit to seek proximity to the TMC leadership forsaking the Left Front in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. (IPA Service)