Kolkata: With the Congress and the Trinamool Congress deciding to go their separate ways both at the centre and in West Bengal, the Left parties on Friday said the break was unsurprising, as the alliance was formed by "self-seeking, egotistical" politicians with little knowledge of running a coalition.
"It was a coming together of self-seeking people, who had their personal clashes and egos. More than an alliance, it was a formula for seat- and power-sharing," Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) central committee member Mohammed Salim told IANS.
Salim said there could be no comparison between the Congress-Trinamool alliance and the Left Front which ran West Bengal for 34 years. "The Trinamool and the Congress could stay together for only 16 months in the state. The Left Front leaders were so very experienced and knew how to share and run a coalition," he said.
Asked what the implications would be for the state, Salim said: "People are already suffering. And they are watching. People who cannot run a coalition with so few partners cannot work for the people."
Communist Party of India (CPI) West Bengal secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar said the two parties have no idea about the rules of an alliance. "While the Congress was the major partner at the centre, Trinamool was the spearhead in the state. But in a coalition the size of each constituent does not matter," Majumdar said.
"But I find that the Trinamool says policy matters at the centre were never discussed with them, while the Congress repeats the same allegation against the Trinamool at the state," he said.
Revolutionary Socialist Party state secretary Khiti Goswami said with its majority, the Trinamool was in a position to run its government in the state, "unless cracks develop in Mamata Banerjee's party".
"It would also be interesting to see what sort of relations the Trinamool enjoys with the central government. The state government needs financial support. They had made a lot of promises before last year's assembly polls," Goswami said.
"Now if they can't fulfil them, there may be social unrest as the opposition will launch movements on the failed promises," he said, anticipating chaos if promises were not fulfilled.
All India Forward Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee said that neither the Congress, nor the Trinamool had the right mentality for an alliance.
However, he predicted that the Congress could suffer an erosion in the state, as the Trinamool was in a better position, being in power.
Chatterjee however had words of praise for the chief minister's stance on FDI in the retail sector. "She is speaking the language of the people by opposing hike in diesel prices and restriction on number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders," he told IANS.
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