It’s complicated. The relationship between the three political parties, Trinamool, the CPIM and the Congress, that is. And at no other time has the complex nature of their relationship been more glaring than now, when all three parties have decided to be a part of a union of Opposition leaders which has joined hands to take down the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in the Parliamentary elections of 2024.

The one question that has come up since June 23, when the leaders of seventeen Opposition political parties met in Patna and decided that they would bury their hatchets for the common cause of dethroning arch rival BJP, is how would this new alliance affect the acrimonious equations between Trinamool and the two parties that it has been at loggerheads with in the state of West Bengal – the CPIM and the Congress, which have been jointly rivaling Mamata Banerjee and her ruing grassroots party in every recent election.

Explaining the dynamics in an interview to The Statesman, veteran CPIM leader and former MP and Politburo member, Mohammad Salim said, “The question of any changes in the position of the CPIM or the Left parties as far as Trinamool is concerned does not arise because the Left is fighting against the rule of Trinamool in the state, focusing on specific issues, which include corruption and various scams.”

Salim also states that the decision to unite in order to try to topple the BJP government does not constitute “an alliance”. He says, “It would be incorrect to say that the CPIM and other Communist parties decided to work together with Trinamool. Trinamool is just one of the parties which have joined the united Opposition. It comprises several other political parties. The CPIM and the other Left parties are not engaging with the Trinamool in any other way.”

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, President of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee too said that there will be no shift in the status quo in the state as far as equations between the Congress and the Trinamool is concerned. “Congress has always opposed the BJP whereas the Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee had earlier been a part of the NDA government”. Chowdhury  is referring to the time when Banerjee had joined the BJP-led NDA government of then Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee in 1999 and became Railway Minister.

According to Salim – who corroborated that the June 23 meeting will be followed not just by another meeting early this month but by several rounds of meetings before the Parliamentary elections – Trinamool was not the initiator of this union of Opposition political parties and the Left, therefore, is not technically “joining” the Trinamool. “In fact,” said Salim, “there was another front that was suggested by her (Banerjee) earlier this year and several leaders including Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had been approached but it fell through because some of them did not agree to join the anti-BJP platform.”

Political experts point out that political exigencies dictate the political decisions that are taken. On the topic of complicated relationships, Congress and the Left parties, which are currently fighting Didi together in Bengal, had themselves had massive fallouts in the past. In 2008, the Left parties pulled out support from the Congress-led UPA government of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the signing of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.  Yet, Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge will once again sit with CPIM’s Sitaram Yechury in the next meeting of Opposition leaders scheduled to be held around July 10. Didi is also going to be there, it is reported.