The battle for the post of president in the state Trinamool Congress is over. Or is it just the beginning? One can never be sure about it. It was in 2011 that the party opened its account in the state Assembly election. The party’s candidate Konthoujam Sarat defeated his rival candidate of the Congress in a by-election following the demise of the then sitting MLA, Dr Sapam Budhichandra of Konthoujam Assembly Constituentcy, who was also the Speaker of the Manipur Assembly. The present confusion in the party could scale up, and it could become almost like a circus arena where the clown, the juggler and the gymnast perform different acts – all together at a time. It is worth mentioning that Trinamool emerged as the second largest party in the 10th Assembly Election of Manipur. The party bagged seven seats out of the sixty Assembly Constituencies. With the Indian National Congress scripting history by winning a whooping forty two seats in a house of 60 seats; though small, the seven seats that Trinamool captured naturally made them the leading opposition in the House. Its MLA from Oinam Assembly Constituentcy, Dr Irengbam Ibohalbi has been a prominent member of the opposition. During the past Assembly Sessions, Dr Ibohalbi has been an active participant in the debates of the House. Whenever Dr Ibohalbi speaks, he speaks with conviction and flair. The rest of the MLAs of Trinamool were silent members of the House, of course with the exception of Thounaojam Shyamkumar of Andro and Khumukcham Joykishan of Thangmeiband. But one cannot afford to miss the name of MLA L Ibomcha of NCP who is also one of the best opposition members of the House. The two members are undeniably the saving grace of the opposition. Without the two names the House could have witnessed the weakest ever opposition in the history of the Manipur Legislative Assembly. This is at the time when political heavyweights like O Joy and K Radhabinod missed to claim their seats in the 10th Assembly Election. The Communist Party of India, a party known to be a fiery opposition in the House also failed to return a single seat in this Assembly. In a working democracy the role of the opposition is no less important than the ruling party. After all, it is the debates in the House which are going to shape the policies and programmes of the government. Through debates the opposition fine tunes the policies and intervenes when there are any aberrations while executing the policies. The state Trinamool Congress by its virtue of being the leading party in the opposition should be a responsible party. The party should be at the forefront in setting agendas of the people, particularly when the ruling government fails to deliver. What is happening now within the party should come to a logical end. The party should immediately stop washing its dirty linen in the public. If all the three leaders: Kim Gangte, Th Shyamkumar and Kh Joykishan are claiming to be the president of the party, perhaps the best option left with their high command is to drop all the three names. Even if their high command appoints one among the three as the legitimate president of the party, the inner party imbroglio is bound to linger. Mamata Banerjee should not perhaps miss the name of Dr I Ibohalbi from her tentative list for the post of the president of her party in the state.
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