Have pitched camp in Delhi...

I’m rarely in Delhi on Sundays. When Parliament is in session, I tend to fly back to Kolkata on Friday evenings. Sometimes work keeps me back on Saturday, but never on a Sunday. The election season, however, changes us all, and I’ve spent the weekend in Delhi. It’s likely I’ll spend several of the coming weeks (and weekends) in the capital as the most important five-yearly event in the life of our democracy is upon us.

This morning, right after church, I went to the Trinamool office in Delhi and spent several hours on the lawns with our new friends from Team Anna. They were not conventional politicians – in fact they were not politicians at all, one could argue. Yet, their public-spiritedness, their enthusiasm and sheer passion, and their cult-like commitment to their cause was infectious. As they sang songs, it was natural to hum along.

As some of you may know, Mamata Banerjee and Anna Hazare met recently and have agreed to work together. This is not an electoral alliance or anything of the sort, but Anna has graciously offered to campaign for Mamatadi and for Trinamool candidates in the coming election. We believe he will help us expand our footprint.

What is the purpose of focusing energies on a national election and on states beyond Bengal? The question is legitimate but ignores the strides Trinamool has made in regions beyond Bengal. A few months ago, I was sent by Mamatadi to help be a part of the party campaign in Manipur. I was left overwhelmed and impressed by my remarkable colleagues in Imphal. They performed astoundingly. Dismissed as no-hopers, we won seven seats and today Trinamool is the principal opposition party in the Manipur assembly. We also have five MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh and one each in Assam and Uttar Pradesh. This is a small start, but good going for a party that was born only 16 years ago.

Our dream for 2014 is to open our non-Bengal account in the Lok Sabha. We have identified a few seats where the party has a reasonable chance. In West Bengal itself, we are confident Mamatadi’s good governance, credibility of purpose and consistent opposition to the anti-people UPA government, especially in the past two years, will help us win a majority of the 42 Lok Sabha seats. People will decide.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

Federal Front: An idea whose time has come

Earlier this month, 11 parties met in Delhi for a private chat. Right after the meeting, the voluble and silver-tongued representative of the CPI(M) came out, addressed the media and began spinning a story about the birth of the Third Front. By the evening, two of the 11 parties themselves had debunked this theory and insisted the collective hadgot together for simply coordination in Parliament, not to draw election strategies. Further, within the four-party Left Front, two smaller parties were uncertain.

The following Sunday, February 9, the general secretary of the CPI(M) turned up for a public meeting at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds and again made a pitch for the so-called Third Front. The next morning, CPI(M) busybodies met the leaders of the Janata Dal (United) and Janata Dal (Secular) for breakfast in Delhi, and again whispered Third Front sweet nothings to journalists.

Soon after, the leader of the Samajwadi Party made a categorical statement that any non-BJP, non-Congress front, whether Third Front or otherwise, would only emerge after the elections. There was no question of a pre-poll alliance. The Communist balloon had well and truly been tricked. Within hours, the voluble and silver-tongued representative of the CPI(M) had to eat crow and agree that the Third Front was at best a post-poll idea.

Frankly the Third Front is not just dead, it was never born. The Federal Front, suggested by Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal and leader of the Trinamool Congress, is another matter. It has a future and is worth discussing.

What is the Federal Front? Is it the same as the Third Front? Are the differences only semantic, or are they substantial? Mamata Banerjee’s belief has been that the Trinamool government has done a good, pro-development job in West Bengal for close to three years now. People are happy with us; voters have blessed us in election after election and will, we believe, show their support and affection for us in the 2014 Lok Sabha election as well. This will give Trinamool an overwhelming majority of seats from West Bengal.

Like the Trinamool government in West Bengal, there are other regional-party state governments – led by able and performing chief ministers –that will do well in their states and come to Delhi with a sizeable number of Lok Sabha seats. These parties have no grand design. They have only the welfare of their states and their people in mind. They believe states and state governments deserve more autonomy and resources to serve their people, and cannot be force-fed ‘one size fits all’ plans from Delhi. Finally, all these parties are opposed to corruption in public life, to dynastic traditions in politics, and to seeking votes in the name of riots and communal identities.

After the Lok Sabha verdict, these parties will form the Federal Front. They will be motivated by just the desire to maximise developmental benefits for those living in their states. The Third Front on the other hand is a hobby horse of the Communists, who want to use the power of regional and smaller parties to manipulate their way to influence without responsibility, and to promote obsolete agendas that have nothing to do with the lives and problems of common people, and certainly not with the aspirations of states.

In sum, the Third Front is a Communist day-dream. As for Mamata Banerjee’s conceptualisation of the Federal Front, it is an idea whose time has come.

Derek O’Brien
MP and Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha, Trinamool Congress