Can Mamata's TMC be an equal partner with Congress?

NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sealed her party's alliance with Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) in Goa for the upcoming assembly elections in the state, while insisting that her efforts were meant to defeat BJP and also eat into Congress' space in the state."
This comes a day after TMC MP Derek O'Brien took a dig at Congress as it led the opposition charge in Parliament to protest against the suspension of 12 opposition members of Rajya Sabha.
With TMC provoking the Congress leadership, with its aggressive expansion plans and in leading the opposition moves against the ruling BJP, O’Brien on Tuesday tweeted, "Amused. Some political parties have the ability to come up with genuine IDEAS for protest inside and outside #Parliament. Some political parties then try so hard to own (and appropriate) those ideas. Truly amusing"
While the one-upmanship game that TMC is playing with Congress, in leading the opposition pack with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, many in the rival camp has viewed the strategy as one that is devised to hurt the interest of the Congress, the main national party, with its presence in every state.
Banerjee however, said in Goa on Tuesday, that her “fight isn’t with the Congress.” She said the Congress party makes tall claims of fighting elections alone. But their electoral record of late has been extremely poor.
“You fought against us in West Bengal polls earlier this year. At least fight against the BJP and then make big statements,” the TMC chief said at a public rally in Goa, challenging Congress to hit the streets and take on BJP as she claimed to be doing.
Keen observers of the TMC chief's political moves, including her recent victory against an aggressive BJP campaign in Bengal, say she is ensuring her stature in the opposition camp as an equal rather than a subservient of Congress, even while she heads a regional party as against a national entity.
As third-term chief minister, Banerjee has proved the point by challenging Congress to join the alliance she is forging in the small state of Goa, rather than TMC joining a Congress-led alliance, which has so far been the case.
Whether this experiment works on the ground finally is what political watchers are keenly waiting to see.