Playing to the gallery, the populist politician’s stock-in-trade, can sometimes induce bursts of unintended rhetoric. Speaking at a gathering of the West Bengal Muslim Students Union in Calcutta, Mamata Banerjee announced, “We are not with anybody in this state.” This was interpreted to mean she was declaring that her alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party was at an end and that she was no longer a part of the National Democratic Alliance. The contradiction in the statement is obvious. Ms Banerjee cannot snap her ties with the BJP and the NDA only in West Bengal. She cannot have one ally in national politics, and not be with that ally in her own state. A part of this contradiction grows out of Ms Banerjee’s enthusiasm to woo the audience she was addressing. The numero uno of the Trinamul Congress knows that any appeal she makes to Muslims in the state seems insincere because of her cosiness with the BJP. She thought it would be a good move to declare her independence from the BJP, and thus to hoist her secular flag.

Such noble intentions evaporated within a few hours. In Delhi, she was quick to point out that her statement had no bearing on her political position in the national scene. So, by her own admission, Ms Banerjee is now in a bizarre situation where she is with the BJP and the NDA everywhere except in West Bengal. She seems to find no absurdity in her situation.

Ms Banerjee’s peculiar situation is the outcome of the kind of politics in which she excels. This consists of having no principles save a rigid and vehement opposition to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal. To thrive as an anti-Left political leader, Ms Banerjee cannot afford to alienate the Muslim voters. But this is precisely what she has done by entering into an alliance with the BJP. She recognizes the handicap. Yet the friendship with the BJP has brought her rich benefits, including a cabinet portfolio. Ideally, what she would like is to maintain her alliance with the BJP, and still win the Muslim votes. It is difficult in politics, as in life, to have the pudding and eat it too. Ms Banerjee may well discover that there may not be any pudding anymore.

Ms Banerjee’s attempts to distance herself from the BJP in West Bengal have made some Congress leaders look at the possibility of the Congress and the Trinamul Congress forming an alliance. Given the Congress’s growing problems with the CPI(M) and the Left, it is important for the Congress to move closer to the Trinamul, at least for electoral purposes. For this to happen, Ms Banerjee will have to articulate her break from the BJP in clearer terms than she has done so far. She has earned for herself the unenviable label of being anti-development. This is another tag — together with the BJP friendship tag — that she will have to shed. Even after that there will be a question mark over her reliability and sincerity. Ms Banerjee is yet to discover that for her making friends is tougher than making enemies.