Not vying for PM post, BJP nervous because of Oppn unity: Mamata

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said she was not vying to be the prime minister and that the first priority was to defeat the BJP which is "scared and nervous" to face the 2019 polls because of opposition unity.

Banerjee, who has been at the forefront of efforts to rally opposition parties for an anti-BJP front, spent the second day of her Delhi visit meeting leaders of various parties including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Besides leaders of the Congress, TDP, YSR(Congress), DMK, RJD, SP and JD(S), she also met BJP veteran L K Advani, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and dissident BJP leaders.

"The opposition is united.... In 2019 BJP will be finished," Banerjee, who invited the leaders of the opposition parties as well as Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to her January 19 rally in Kolkata, told reporters.

The rally is seen as not just a show of opposition unity but also an attempt to catapult Banerjee to the centrestage.

"We are all for all. We will take a decision on collective leadership. If all opposition political parties can join hands and work together in Parliament, then why not fight unitedly outside," the TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister told reporters after her nearly half-an-hour long meeting with the Gandhis at 10, Janpath, the residence of Sonia Gandhi.

On the Congress' indication of its willingness to accept her candidature as opposition's PM face, she said, "I am not for any chair, our aim is to defeat the BJP."
Asked about the prime ministerial candidate of the proposed anti-BJP front, she said, "it will be decided later. The first priority is to defeat the BJP. The BJP has to be defeated first."
To a query on Amit Shah's criticism of her on the NRC issue, she said, "I am not his servant. Why should I reply to his comments."
On her meeting with leaders of various political parties, she said, "We know every political leader. I am happy to meet all of them."
Attacking the Centre on Assam's National Register of Citizens final draft, she said, "People whose names have been kept out are from Bihar, UP, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal. We want them to live peacefully. Some of them are living for 100 ears for five generations in Assam. How can you do this to them?"