The Congress, which has been a major force in the state so far, is getting a shabby treatment at the hands of the 'big sister' both in allocation of seats for elections and associating its workers with her public campaign. It is totally Mamata-centred, and even the Indira portraits are disallowed. In the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress got stagnated at the old tally while Trinamul took bulk of the cake. In the recent by-elections, the Trinamul robbed the two sitting Congress seats and won both for itself. In Siliguri in North Bengal , where Mamata has been rather weak, Congress was given a better share.

But Trinamul leaders now say it was a mistake. The Congress might have lent support to it even without such 'largesse'. If true, it signals bad omen for the party. Trinamul leaders never fail to stress the point that politics of West Bengal after Singur-Nandigram was nothing but a Mamata wave. Not only the Marxists. The Congress will also get washed away. Already, Trinamul leaders are talking of 'allotting' only the sitting seats for the Congress in assembly elections.

May be premature yet, but Mamata's ministers are talking of replicating the 'DMK model' in West Bengal . Under this, the Congress will support a Trinamul government in state in exchange of the latter's support to the UPA at the Centre. If this happens, that will complete the Congress's decimation. More than this, what is happening at the ground level is more disturbing. Contrary to the standard media depictions, Mamata's ranks are swelled not just by the CPI(M) dissenters, but by a massive loyalty switch by the Congress supporters.

The more the Mamata wave blows, fanned by the media prop, more vacillating Congress ranks will join it. Prospects of power will quicken the process. The harsh truth for the Congress is that Mamata's expansion is more at the cost of the existing Congress support base than the Left. Congress aspirants who know the TMC will be unkind in the matter of seat sharing, want to safeguard their position by joining Mamata in advance. This is happening in a big way at the grass-roots level, and that is a cause for the Congress concern.

Therefore, while the Congress at the centre can have the satisfaction of defeating the Left, in the process the party runs the risk of decimating itself. There is considerable resentment among the loyal Congress workers about yielding the entire Congress space to Trinamul. Mamata's temperament and whimsical nature make things worse. Unlike a Sharad Pawar or Karunanidhi, Mamata is unpredictable. This makes long-term political understanding with her impossible. She was in and out of the NDA at will. Her NDA tamer Promod Mahajan always had a tough time with her. Supposing the NDA or a third front sans CPI(M) reaches striking distance of power, she can well ditch the Congress.

Another Congress worry is her moves to poach into its political space elsewhere even while sidelining it in West Bengal. In Arunachal, she has already admitted six ticket-denied Congress MLAs. Trinamul is contacting more so that it could establish a base in North-East at the expense of the Congress. She is making similar moves in Jharkhand. Her bonhomie with Nitish Kumar is seen as an indication of her wider designs. Such signals go against whatever feeble hopes some Congressmen have about an honest long-term alliance with her.

As a coalition partner, Mamata is at her old game. Frequent tantrums marked by boycotts and walkouts are her tools to send signals. When she found the cabinet was bent on approving the land acquisition bill on July 23 despite her opposition, she just collected her papers and walked out. The PM helplessly looked at Pranab Mukherjee who rushed after her and persuaded her to come back. Since then she has attended just another cabinet meeting on August 27. The immediate problem for the UPA is the arrogance with which she flouts the coalition dharma and the principle of prime ministerial authority.

When in NDA, Vajpayee could humour her when she met him with complaints. Now she talks things more with Sonia Gandhi than PM. As per rules, she had met PM before presenting the railway budget but talked only about stopping central aid to West Bengal. The Left, it was repeated in those days, had 'power without responsibility'. Manata has neither responsibility nor respect for the system. She hardly cares for the principle of collective responsibility, not to speak of prime ministerial prerogative.

Victories have made her more defiant. Railways is beyond the PM's control. Suddenly she announces the dumping of the land acquisition act and buy land (not acquire) from the farmers. NHAI too uses this act to acquire land. But who can question Mamata? She is so touchy about PM's 'interference'. She controls the Trinamul ministers, not their cabinet ministers. They must spend five days a week in Kolkata. No one can question her when she refuses to attend cabinet meetings. Of the 12 cabinet meetings up to September 12, she has attended only seven.

In the first 31 days in office, she spent 20 days in Bengal. And so did all junior TMC ministers. Files have to be airlifted for her signature. That much for the UPA's good governance slogan. On September 10, a huge Japanese loan for rail freight corridor could not be endorsed as she absented herself. Before this, she skipped another cabinet meeting that had discussed crucial proposals on jute, something important for West Bengal . 'I am not a Delhi-based rootless leader,' she said when told PM was unhappy about absenteeism by ministers.

No PM of a national party can endorse Mamata's partisan actions like gifting life railway passes for Bengali artistes and writers (not outsiders) and reckless use of the public sector for partisan electoral purposes. Here is a cruel paradox. Mamata was raised to finish the Left in Bengal . Like the CIA's arms training to madrasa students to raise Taliban against Soviets in Afghanistan . Now the Bengal tigress borrows the same obstructionist tools from the Left - demand for CMP, opposition to disinvestment, SEZs and petro price hike. No one knows how long all this will drag on. (IPA Service)