New Delhi: Ahead of the verdict in several crucial state elections, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is being forced into yet another political confrontation with a key ally—West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The move reflects a show of strength in a climate of political uncertainty by regional leaders and chief ministers such as Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik in Orissa, Nitish Kumar in Bihar and J. Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, observers said. Patnaik has even revived the idea of a grouping that would be an alternative to the Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with the first political test being the presidential election that’s likely to be held before July this year.

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With TMC’s Mamata Banerjee opposing the NCTC, Mint’s Sahil Makkar talks about the options for the UPA as it deals with a rebellion in its ranks.

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Banerjee’s letter seeking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to “review and withdraw” the home ministry’s order on the organization, functions, powers and duties of NCTC came a day after her Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleged that the Congress party was “fooling” Muslims.

That remark was made in reaction to Congress leaders calling for a sub-quota for minorities within the 27% reservation for other backward classes, pledges that the Election Commission has taken objection to as being in breach of the electoral code of conduct. Banerjee’s characterization has, meanwhile, been seen as a direct attack on the ruling party’s strategy of targeting the crucial Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh and, thereby, torpedoing the Congress plan to revive its electoral prospects in the politically crucial state.

Banerjee’s throwing in her lot with the opposition chief ministers against NCTC may hobble the Union home ministry’s plans to put in place an elite body that would exclusively focus on terror-related issues. It may also herald a redrawing of the battle lines, at least in terms of the forthcoming presidential poll rather than the 2014 general election.

President Pratibha Patil’s five-year term is set to end in July. India’s President is chosen by an electoral college comprising members of Parliament and members of legislative assembly.

Banerjee’s 14 February letter to the Prime Minister expresses concern over rights of the states being infringed.

“It is difficult for the state government to accept such arbitrary exercise of power by the central government/central agency, which have a bearing on the rights and privilege of the states as enshrined in the Constitution of India,” she said.

Home secretary R.K. Singh tried to allay the concerns of the chief ministers.

“We are not passing any new law. There was no need to consult the states prior to notifying NCTC,” he told mediapersons on Friday. “NCTC is formed for better coordination among agencies to fight terror better. There should not be any controversy and it is in national interest that NCTC has been formed.”

While Congress party spokesperson Manish Tewari said the government did not “intend to trample states’ rights”, the main opposition party BJP said it backed any efforts to fight terrorism. “Having said that, we express concern on the lack of confidence on the part of the states towards the Centre’s initiative,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

Mounting pressure

Orissa chief minister Patnaik, whose Biju Janata Dal (BJD) swept recent civic polls in the state, has already written to Singh objecting to the counter-terrorism body, saying that the states were not consulted. Bihar’s Kumar, Tamil Nadu’s Jayalaltihaa and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi have also raised objections.

NCTC personnel will have the power to enter any state, make arrests and extract those it has apprehended without being obliged to consult the local administration, although law and order is a state subject in the Indian Constitution.

Patnaik has mooted the idea of an alternative political front because he says the UPA has been discredited because of alleged corruption and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is “communally tainted”.

The Congress dismissed the prospects of such a grouping. “We have heard and seen a lot about such a front as also its fate,” party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary told reporters in New Delhi on Friday. The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which had sought to put together such a grouping in 2009 but failed to do so, recently abandoned a similar idea.

A BJP leader viewed the resistance by the regional leaders as “flexing” their muscle to assert their position.

A leader of Patnaik’s BJD, which parted ways with the BJP in 2009, said his party does not favour an early general election, but the current efforts are to form a grouping that could play a key role in the presidential election.

Banerjee, the biggest ally of the Congress in the UPA, had earlier embarrassed the government by joining the BJP-led opposition in opposing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, the anti-graft Lokpal Bill and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill.

Political observers say Banerjee, who also fielded TMC candidates in Manipur, Goa and Uttar Pradesh outside her West Bengal base, is trying to position herself as a national leader who champions the cause of federalism. She also seems to be preparing the ground to go solo in West Bengal panchayat (village council) elections due in early 2013, but which may be advanced to the end of this year.

“With the Left still in shock from their debacle in the 2011 state elections, she wants to finish the Congress before the next Lok Sabha elections,” said a Congress leader, who did not want to be identified. “She calculates that the TMC could then win at least 22-25 seats in the 2014 general election, which would make her a formidable force at the national level.”

The TMC’s support will be crucial for the UPA in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling coalition is in a minority, as Banerjee’s party is expected to increase its tally from six to as many as 19 in the forthcoming polls to the upper house.

Subrata Mukherjee, a former professor in the political science department of Delhi University, says the regional parties are engaged in a “balancing act”.

“It also shows that quasi-federalism can no longer continue and it’s the time of bargaining federalism. The Centre just can’t keep the powers and direct the states to do (its bidding). The Congress should be much more responsive to the regional parties and incorporate them in the larger policy framework,” Mukherjee said.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram had first proposed NCTC in December 2009, a year after Mumbai terror attacks, as an umbrella body for all counter-terrorism measures. The proposal remained dormant in the Prime Minister’s Office till the blasts of 13 July last year that killed at least 24 people in Mumbai.

liz.m@livemint.com

Appu Esthose Suresh and PTI contributed to this story.