Congress-TMC bonhomie on display ahead of Mamata's likely meeting with Sonia Gandhi

Ahead of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's likely meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the bonhomie between Congress and TMC was on display. On Sunday, the Congress party's official Twitter handle posted a picture of the TMC supremo's nephew Abhishek Banerjee being a "target" of the Pegasus spyware along with a caption- "PM Modi took the adage, 'keep the enemies closer' a little too far". In response, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien wrote, "Khela Hobe" (the game is on) which was the party's slogan for the recently concluded WB Assembly polls.

Notably, Congress contested this election in an alliance with the Left Front and the ISF, failing to win a single seat in the end. During her stay in the national capital from July 26-29, Banerjee is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and key leaders from the opposition. Before leaving for Delhi, she will chair a special Cabinet meeting on Monday. 

TMC eyes national role

After a hard-fought election campaign, TMC sprung a surprise by decisively winning the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election by bagging 213 seats whereas BJP could win in only 77 constituencies. While the JP Nadda-led party won 74 more seats than the previous election, its vote share of 38.13% could not pose a challenge to TMC which garnered a vote share of 47.94%. Buoyed by its third consecutive victory, TMC is mulling projecting Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Making her national ambitions clear, Banerjee propagated the West Bengal model of governance in her Martyrs' Day rally speech on July 21. Hitting out at the Centre over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Pegasus leak, the TMC chief stated, "Next week I will go to Delhi. I want to meet the important Opposition leaders Sharad Pawar ji, Chidambaram ji. If a meeting is called I will attend on 27, 28 or 29. Then we can talk about where the country is going. We are the political parties of India, we must come together against this otherwise the citizens won't forgive us".

TMC's national foray comes at a juncture when Banerjee's future as the CM is in limbo as time is running out for her to be elected to the WB Assembly. Recently, she was unanimously chosen as the chairperson of the TMC Parliamentary party despite not being a member of either Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, WB BJP chief Dilip Ghosh affirmed that TMC will not succeed in national politics citing the party's failure to make inroads in other states.