TMC leader Derek O’Brien
AMID efforts by the Trinamool Congress to forge a new front of various parties, its parliamentary party leader (Rajya Sabha) and national spokesman Derek O’Brien discusses how the Congress could fit in. In an interview with The Indian Express, the TMC leader tells what kind of front his party is looking at.
Excerpts from an interview:
What kind of a front are you looking at?
It is not about only who we are talking to, it is about who are the others who are talking to us. We are a party led by a lady who, after 40 years of struggle, organically removed the communists through a grassroots movement… With her (Mamata Banerjee) track record and performance, it is obvious that leaders across the country from various political parties are looking at her to play the lead role in 2019.
Is Mamata Banerjee going to be the face of the anti-BJP front in 2019?
This is not an anti-group. Anti is negative. This is a pro-group. Pro-people. It’s the people who have now decided that BJP must go… The anti-BJP, pro-people platform now also includes TDP, TRS. The BJP government has not delivered at all on development and diversity. Only broken promises. It’s not about faces, it’s about issues. They have made banks cashless… Their attitude to institutions is shameless. The BJP is good at marketing and advertising. To use a marketing analogy, people will buy your product for the first time if you make a big promise. If you do not deliver on your promise, they will never repurchase.
Why are you keeping the Congress out of your conversations about a new front?
I don’t think anybody is keeping anybody out or anybody is keeping anybody in… You have to acknowledge that in some states the Congress is the principal opponent of the BJP. Karnataka is one such state. If you look at the comparatively larger states like Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan, it is the same. Congress obviously has a key role to play, an important role to play.
Now it is to maximise this through formal or informal means. The best example of an informal means is how SP and BSP are fighting Phulpur together… This is an evolving federal force, rather than calling it a front. In two states, Telangana and Bengal, it is obvious that two parties (Trinamool and TRS) are clearly ahead. It is also obvious that in Uttar Pradesh two, three parties have to work closely together.
The Congress is saying that by getting KCR into the front, you will only strengthen the BJP because KCR’s outreach is at BJP’s behest.
What the Congress has or hasn’t said about KCR, I’m not privy to. What I do know is that all federal aspirations have to be met. I was in Hyderabad for two days last week and I can tell you as a student of politics, there is a strong anti-BJP, anti-Modi mood on the streets. It is very clear that the TDP and the TRS do not want to be associated with a brand which is going to bring them negativity… You are not asking me about Shiv Sena? They marched with us on demonetisation.
Obviously, when Mamatadi went to Mumbai, Uddhav Thackeray had a conversation for one-and-a-half hours. That’s another NDA ally… If you look at somebody like Uddhav Thackeray or M K Stalin or Arvind Kejriwal, they are talking to an experienced leader, to somebody who has led people’s movements… somebody who has has delivered.
You talk about changes, one of the big changes is that Rahul Gandhi is now Congress president. Has Mamata congratulated him so far?
She has not been to Delhi since this development took place. But how can you assume she has not congratulated him?
Your party does not seem to have that kind of a working relationship with Rahul Gandhi.
Why are you making this assumption? He chaired the Opposition meeting that was called after the Rajasthan bypoll results. There is good floor coordination in Parliament. It is the Congress party’s prerogative to decide who they should elect as Congress president. It has been a few months. Who am I to pass judgment on somebody who has just taken up a new role? We in the Opposition are looking at the Congress to deliver Karnataka. Let’s focus. In Gujarat they came close, but didn’t make it. Karnataka is a big match. We hope they pull it off.
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