With eye on federal front, Mamata may meet oppn leaders during Delhi visit

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been working hard at projecting herself as the prime ministerial candidate for the united Opposition in 2019, is scheduled to arrive in Delhi on July 31. During her three-day stay in the capital she is expected to “personally meet and invite” Opposition leaders to the “federal front” rally she plans to hold in January in Kolkata. In her last few visits to Delhi, she made it a point to meet the leaders of regional and Opposition parties as part of her efforts to cobble up support for the “federal front”. “Everyone is focused on electing a people-centric government and removing the Bharatiya Janata Party. One of the most senior leaders in this matrix is Mamata Banerjee,” Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said.

No to protocol

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu broke protocol at a recent event to meet his audience, which included some executives of New India Assurance and senior bureaucrats. Naidu, who was the chief guest at the centenary year celebrations of the government-owned insurance firm on Monday, came in early, even before the event was expected to begin. “I told my security team don’t worry about protocol. I need to meet a lot of people. There should be a human touch. If one were to go by protocol, the Vice-President should come at an event, deliver his speech and leave. But that can be done through Doordarshan also,” Naidu said during his speech. 

Praise on record

Congress President Rahul Gandhi had an off-the-record interaction with women journalists on Tuesday. He answered questions ranging from whether the Congress would be open to accepting a leader such as Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati as prime minister after the 2019 polls, what made him hug Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also his views on subjects such as banning pornography and abortion. By Wednesday morning, several media outlets had reported the interaction and quoted Gandhi even though the exchange was strictly off the record. The Congress was a bit wary in the beginning — Gandhi's interaction with Muslim intellectuals earlier this month landed it in political hot water when media reports misquoted him as saying that the Congress was a party for Muslims. But the success of Tuesday evening’s interaction and the praise it received from journalists on social media gave the party’s communication strategy minders confidence to let the off-the-record interaction turn into an on-record one.