Road back The affairs of the West Bengal Congress have been in a mess longer than one cares to remember. One reason for this is the sheer number of years the Congress has been out of power in the state. The other ? and this is partly related to the previous reason ? is the open rivalry between different factions. Therefore, it is something of a wonder that the party?s state committee was actually formed. It is a formidable achievement on the part of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, that she actually succeeded in forming the committee. There are some rumblings already that she did not come down decisively in favour of any one faction, that in trying to please everybody she has not pleased anybody. This is to an extent to misread Sonia Gandhi?s intentions. Her primary aim is to strengthen the party so that it becomes a force during the time of elections. She considers factions to be irrelevant. The organisation of the party must have a semblance of a structure and unity. The formation of the state committee is the first step in that direction. The Congress in West Bengal now at least has a decisionmaking body. What the Congress still lacks is a leader who has some sort of mass appeal. It lost such a leader when Mamata Banerjee left the Congress to form her own party, the Trinamool Congress. Her departure too was a result of faction fighting and of a refusal of the then state leadership to recognise that she alone of the leaders commanded votes. There are indications now that the period of bitterness between Banerjee and the Congress, which drove her to an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, is coming to an end. Banerjee has announced that she would welcome seat adjustments with the Congress in the municipal elections scheduled for the month of May. It is not difficult to read this as a thawing of the icy relationship between the Trinamool Congress leader and the Congress. On Banerjee?s part this can be an act of opportunism and a fallout of her increasingly strained relationship with the BJP. It also may well be a recognition by Banerjee of the Congress?s improved position under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. Both the Congress and Banerjee will benefit from an alliance. The latter will be rid of a partner who is becoming a liability. The former will get back a formidable campaigner and rabble rouser. The obstacle is what Banerjee labels the deferential attitude of West Bengal Congress leaders towards the Left Front. She believes in mobilising and consolidating the considerable anti-left votes that exist in the state. For this a more strident anti-left campaign is required. Banerjee?s homecoming to the Congress, when and if it happens, will not bring the Congress nearer power but will serve to make it heard.