More than her decision to go alone to the Lok Sabha election, as according to her, the Congress has not been adopting a frank attitude on the issue of seat sharing, Kolkata denizens are astonished at her choosing the time to severe relation with Congress, when Narendra Modi has turned more aggressive against the opposition parties and steadily moving ahead to finish off the INDIA bloc. They find virtually no tenability of her move.

The people question Mamata’s political wisdom on her pledge to continue to be a member of the INDIA bloc, but at the same time her decision to oppose the Congress in the election. They argue that being a senior politician she would have ignored the problems being created by the state Congress chief Adhir Choudhary in the greater interest off defeating the rightist forces led by RSS.

They have a valid point since she has a very cordial relation with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and she could have taken up this matter with them directly and candidly told them to caution Adhir. Instead, she chose to abandon the old party and allow Rahul to walk through the streets of districts alone. They point out that in case she would have accompanied Rahul in the Yatra, a strong message would have gone across the country. This would have been also a sign of warning for the RSS and Modi and must have acted as deterrent.

The alleged attack on Rahul’s car has simply widened the chasm between Mamata and Congress. Mamata’s bête noire Adhir Choudhary has come out with the allegation that Rahul’s vehicle was attacked in Malda's Harishchandrapur area as the yatra re-entered West Bengal from Bihar. "The rear window pane of the vehicle Rahul Gandhi was travelling in was smashed after being pelted with stones,” he said. The reports say that television visuals showed Gandhi alighting from the vehicle after reaching a designated halt and inspecting the damaged windowpane.

Nevertheless, the senior Congress leader and spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the attack was false news and that the windshield broke due to the security clearance rope. "A huge crowd had come to meet Rahul ji, when a woman suddenly came forward to meet him, the car had to be stopped suddenly. The windshield of the car was broken due to the rope used in the security circle. Rahul ji is fighting the battle for justice diligently and this country not only stands with him but will also keep him safe", she wrote on X/Twitter in Hindi.

Obviously Shrinate, or for that matter the Congress, resorted to damage control exercise with the aim not to allow their relation with Mamata to break and deteriorate further. Notwithstanding the denial, the damage has been done. The saffron ecosystem has spread the news of INDIA bloc being in a state of tatters in Bengal.

Undeniably, Mamata may succeed in her mission. "Our fight with the BJP will continue. We will fight alone. If anyone can defeat BJP, it is Trinamool Congress," but it would not dethrone the BJP from Delhi Darbar. Winning Bengal will not inflict any damage on BJP. In fact, her hostility towards Congress has been harming the interest of INDIA bloc across the country. People have started questioning her real intent and the reason for resorting to this tactic while election is only two months away. In contrast the people have been appreciative of Congress’s move to bury the hatchet and salvage the situation by getting Mamata on board as a potential ally.

There is little doubt that this unsavoury situation would not have arisen if Mamata had showed little bit of perseverance and restraint. Adhir is certainly not bigger or important than Congress or the urgency to fight the repressive mechanism of RSS and Modi. Mamata should have acted more prudently as she has been witness to the RSS and Modi plotting to split INDIA. They have done it in Bihar and are inching ahead in their mission in Jharkhand, incidentally the two states who are supposed to be the bastion of the secular and anti-rightist forces.

After a bitter fight stretching for over a year, finally Modi’s ED arrested Hemant Soren on January 31 after questioning him for nearly seven hours at his residence in the alleged land fraud case, the day before. Before that the ED suitably assisted by the saffron ecosystem and Jharkhand BJP leaders, enjoying the blessings of the Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan had resorted to worst nature of insinuation against him. Posters were put in Ranchi that Hemant was missing at the behest of ED. The agency also raided his Delhi residence, though Hemant had informed them that he would be available on January 31.

Modi and Amit Shah were resorting to this manoeuvre to take control of the state just ahead of Lok Sabha election and shake confidence of the state INDIA leaders. But Modi’s move has bombed. His Chanakya Amit Shah must not have expected that the tribals of Jharkhand would take it as an insult to their dignity and an attempt to trample their identity. The BJP has to face stiff protest in its stronghold of Kolhan, from where it got three chief ministers. Holding party banners and posters and displaying bows and arrows, thousands of Soren supporters hit the streets alleging that he was being targeted by the BJP-led central government through the probe agency for his tribal identity.

Hundreds of ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) workers and supporters from various districts of the state gathered in Ranchi’s Morabadi ground on Wednesday in protest against the questioning of Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case linked to land deals. They accuse Modi of resorting to vindictive policy saying "Hemant Soren is being targeted because he is a tribal. But, he is like a god to us. We can go to any extent for him". Surprisingly, this sentiment is not only expressed by the tribals, even the non-tribals who have been residing in Jharkhand for centuries.

In their pursuit to suppress and finish the opposition through central agencies, Modi and Shah have been committing one blunder after another. The tribals who have been the prime target of the RSS have turned hostile to RSS and BJP. In Santhalparagana, the home place of Sorens, the RSS cadres are unable to muster strength to face the tribals.

Modi had probably thought of that the vilification campaign launched against Hemant and putting poster that the chief minister of state is ”missing” will force Hemant to surrender has flopped. On the contrary, pursuing his long drawn emergency strategy, he got Champai Soren, the veteran tribal leader, elected as the head of legislative bloc of Jharkhand’s INDIA forum.

Through his action he has torpedoed the plan of Shah to engineer a split in the INDIA bloc and install his government. “Hemant Soren has resigned as the chief minister of Jharkhand. The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has proposed the name of senior JMM leader Champai Soren as the new CM,” state Congress president Rajesh Thakur said.

A senior JMM leader said that the ruling JMM-Congress coalition MLAs, who were camping since afternoon at the chief minister’s residence while the ED grilled him in a closed room, met around 8pm and decided that Champai would take over in view of Hemant’s imminent arrest.

It is indeed matter of shame that the Governor Radhakrishnan has been reluctant to invite Champai for swearing in though all the 48 legislators went to the Raj Bhawan and informed him about Champai being elected as JMM legislative party leader. Champai, who had played a crucial role in the movement for the creation of a separate state of Jharkhand, has been a legislator from the Seraikela Assembly constituency for more than three decades since 1991.

Congress on its part has expressed complete confidence and support to Hemant. The party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said 'forcing' Hemant Soren to resign after putting the ED against him is 'a blow to federalism'. In a post in Hindi on X/Twitter, Kharge said, "The one who did not go with (Narendra) Modi ji will go to jail. Putting ED against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and forcing him to resign is a blow to federalism." Even Rahul Gandhi said that agencies such as the ED, CBI and the I-T Department "are no longer government agencies, now they have become BJP's 'eliminate opposition cell'."

Modi and Shah while have resorted to this action to weaken the opposition, but one thing is explicit that it manifested their complete political bankruptcy. Tribals have turned hostile and are going around calling upon the people of state to avenge this political vendetta at the Lok Sabha election. (IPA Service)