Yet, the rupture was not unexpected. Given Mamata Banerjee's mercurial temperament, it was only a question of time before differences would arise between the two parties. After all, an earlier tie-up between them had also collapsed with Mamata's return in a huff to the BJP.

The basis of the latest disagreement is her refusal to accept the fundamental tenet of a durable partnership - compromise. Having enforced her writ on contesting the two recent assembly by-elections from Kolkata, and rubbed the centre the wrong way by opposing disinvestment and the land acquisition bill, she also wanted to have her own way by installing the new mayor and chairperson of the Siliguri municipal corporation.

No politician has spelt out the reason why the Congress decided to put its foot down on the question. Given Mamata's pre-eminent status in the alliance, her party did have the right to decide who would get the posts after winning the municipal elections in alliance with the Congress. The Left's defeat had also confirmed the impression that the success of the non-Left duo in the parliamentary polls was not a flash in the pan.

Arguably, it was the belief that the two parties were in for a long haul in the state which persuaded the Congress to decide to let Mamata know that she cannot persist with her habitual bullying ways. If the Congress retreated every time, the temperamental Trinamool leader would become even more adamant. However, it is possible that the ploy which the Congress has used to defy Mamata is a remedy which is worse than the disease.

By deciding to team up with the CPI(M) to grab the two posts, the Congress has given her the chance to accuse it of both betrayal of the popular verdict and of being excessively greedy. The palpably cynical move would also enable her to repeat her old description of the Congress as the “B” team of the CPI (M). Yet, the very fact that not only had she not done so, but had even refrained from referring to the Congress by name at her first public meeting in Siliguri after the Congress's defection - she sarcastically described the party as a friend - suggested that she did not want the rift to become wider. The restraint will confirm the impression that she has become more mellow.

It may be that she has realized her mistake of having been too demanding in her dealings with her “friend”. It is also possible that she now knows that the only way to fulfil her ambition of replacing Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as the chief minister in two years' time is to keep the alliance with the Congress alive. It does not take great political acumen to predict that any breakdown of the Trinamool Congress-Congress ties will only help the Left.

It was precisely because the latter had been uneasy about the potentiality of the alliance against it that it lost no time to respond to the Congress's offer to join hands in the Siliguri corporation. But, given the kind of crosscurrents which are a feature of West Bengal politics, the Congress-Left bonhomie is not without its own complications. Although the CPI, which has always been closer to the Congress than the CPI(M) - vide their proximity at the Centre between 1970 and 1977 - has supported the Marxists' alliance with the Congress in Siliguri, the RSP has opposed it on the grounds that the Congress represents the bourgeoisie.

It isn't only the possibility of the Left Front's unity being undermined by the Siliguri events which will worry Big Brother. The fact that the CPI(M) West Bengal unit's sudden closeness to the Congress goes against the party's central body's decision to part company with the Congress last year over the nuclear deal is also likely to set off another ideological debate among the comrades.

In all likelihood, therefore, the Siliguri episode will remain a one-off affair. Even if the West Bengal CPI(M) sees it as an opportunity to sow the seeds of division in the alliance between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, it cannot be too hopeful about the success of its game plan. The Marxists will be aware that the Congress's main intention is to cut Mamata down to size so that she does not act in too overbearing a manner during the seat-sharing talks at the time of the forthcoming assembly by-elections and panchayat elections and later the all-important assembly polls. (IPA)