The fact of the matter is, there is hardly anyone in West Bengal harbouring any doubt that the two parties are not working in tandem on certain issues in West Midnapore district. Cooperation between them has been a settled fact since the Nandigram and Singur agitations in 2007. Over the years, apart from minor occasional spats between Trinamool leader Ms Mamata Banerjee and the Maoists leader (be it Kishanji, or Bikash or anybody at all!), there have never been too many problems between them.

This cosy relationship is as intriguing as it is mystifying, for observers. Each side is prepared to pay a price to maintain what is a fairly strong link. Ms Banerjee will not be able prevent or stop the Maoists from killing even supporters or workers of her party (sorry, police informers!) from time to time. To date, she has never condemned these individual killings. In fact she has not really condemned even mass killings — although over 160 people were killed in the Gyaneswari express sabotage where the involvement of the Maoist-sponsored People Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) and allied groups has been established beyond doubt, to cite one example only.

On such massacres, Ms Banerjee is unusually a model of reticence, she is not always even available to the press! If she at all speaks, her reaction has a distinct dovelike cooing pattern. She usually denies that there are any Maoists in West Bengal at all — the CPI(M) has the monopoly on committing all murders.

Of late, at her public meetings, she speaks a different language. Addressing the Maoists, who have often organised demos to upset train schedules and uprooted tracks at will, she speaks to them as brothers, who should not be so naughty as to destroy public property or resort to violence, like the wicked CPI(M). If they have any demand and problems, they should approach her and she will solve all their problems on a single day, if possible!

There is of course no way of knowing how exactly battle-hardened Maoist leaders, whose underground status does not necessarily prevent them from issuing press releases fairly regularly or giving interviews to TV channels, respond to such cajoling — frankly, there is no other word! However, they would be happy to see her as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal, they will attend her rallies and ensure that no one disturbs her. They have said so in their statements often enough.

Given the dog eats dog standards of politics in the country, all this has become passé, the more so for such a cynical body of voters as happen to live in West Bengal. It has to be stressed that even such unorthodox and unprincipled political linkages between a democratic party represented at the UPA Ministry and armed extremists seeking to overthrow the democratic order itself, no longer shocks anyone.

The CPI(M) has been crying itself hoarse on the issue, fishing for some sympathy at the national and state levels, but in vain. It seems the majority of the people now want to see out the CPI(M) once and for all, and let the devil take the hindmost. In part this stems from the holier than thou image the CPI(M) has carefully built for itself over the years on most issues. This image repels more than it attracts, especially when the party's opportunism on the communal issue, the BJP and liberalisation comes to the surface. .

In fact the CPI(M) should ponder the failure of its strident politics and growing political isolation far more seriously than it has been doing , the party may indeed fight for its very survival after the next Assembly polls, on present indications.

But yes, when it accuses the Trinamool Congress of being in league with the Maoists, it speaks no more than the simple truth. It is another matter that hardly anyone seems to believe the party even then.

The other intriguing question is why the centre which has every piece of information about the Trinamool-Maoist nexus still continues to stonewall Left allegations, even at the cost of compromising its own credibility.

The simple and incomplete answer is that despite enjoying a majority, the Congress(I) is too deeply concerned with its own problems at the centre — price rise, the AfPak situation, uncertain monsoon, the Maoist challenge, the considerable challenge posed by the BJP and a combined opposition…. It is in no position to offend any of its allies. To stay in power it can compromise on corruption and the opportunism of its allies even if it betrays the national interest!

Delhi-based observers say that there is no hope of the CPI(M) winning any significant concessions from the centre in the near future until there is a change at the party's top Delhi-based leadership . Senior Congress (I) leaders have not forgotten party secretary Prakash Karat's blunt message to troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee and others on Indo-US nuclear deal:”Your Government must go.” Mukherjee retorted that if the Cong (I) and CPI(M) parted company, the CPI(M) in Bengal will also pay a heavy price, which apparently was dismissed by left leaders as pure “bluster” at the time. The rest is history.

Now the Cong (I) is telling the CPI(M) in effect that it must “go from west Bengal.”, because that is its priority. It can deal effectively with the Trinamool later, or simply wait for this one-leader party to crumble under the burden of high expectations post 2011 polls. (IPA)