Today in Politics: INDIA alliance’s Bengal predicament, and will it finally appoint a convener?

Just one day to go for the Bharat Jodi Nyay Yatra and here we are. At the start of what already feels like the beginning of a hectic general election campaign season after the festivities break. While the Congress gets set to embark on a yatra whose outcome may make or break how its Lok Sabha election campaign turns out, the party still has a lot to figure out and lots to fix. Chief among them will be what it does about the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

As the leaders of the top members of the INDIA alliance, part of its coordination committee, meet over Zoom at 11.30 am on Saturday they will, according to Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh, “review various issues like seat-sharing talks that have begun, participation in Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra … and other important matters”. But the TMC and its chairperson Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, will be conspicuous by their absence.

A TMC leadertold Manoj CG that the party was informed about the meeting at really short notice on Friday and that the Congress did not disclose the agenda of the meeting. But, according to some in the alliance, the appointment of a convener may be among the “other important matters” discussed at the meeting. It has been apparent for some time now that the Janata Dal (United) wants its chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to be appointed convener. As Manoj writes, the Congress is “agreeable to Kumar being appointed the convener if there is a consensus in the bloc”.

This is the second time in as many days this week that the TMC has refused to engage with the Congress. On Thursday, the party said it would not meet the Congress’s national alliance committee to work out the seat agreement in West Bengal. The party is ready to offer two, and