 "Mamata Banerjee")
Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Opposition should ensure “one-on-one” electoral fights with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Neither the Congress nor the Shiv Sena were “untouchables” in this fight, she added.
Banerjee said she hoped Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and her Samajwadi Party (SP) counterpart Akhilesh Yadav would invite all Opposition leaders to Lucknow for a meeting. She hailed their alliance, which recently managed to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha by-polls in the Uttar Pradesh.
On a visit to New Delhi, Banerjee was in Parliament in the afternoon, when she met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for nearly an hour. She is slated to meet rebel BJP leaders Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha, as also Arun Shourie, on Wednesday.
Some sources claimed Banerjee broached the subject of forming a “federal front” without the Congress with Pawar.
Others disagreed. They said the TMC leader told the NCP chief that the Congress should be more reasonable in its negotiations with regional parties, and it should rein in the West Bengal unit, particularly its leaders like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Earlier this month, Banerjee had hosted Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief and Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, who had advocated forming a “federal front” without the Congress.
However, Banerjee said on Tuesday the Congress was not an “untouchable”, and Opposition parties should support whichever party was strongest in its area of influence to take on the BJP.
“We want all Opposition parties to work together. We should help the strongest in a state to fight the BJP. It should be one fight,” she said.
Banerjee could not meet United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, but would meet the party leadership on Wednesday.
Other Opposition leaders met her on Tuesday. These included the Biju Janata Dal’s Bhartruhari Mahtab, the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, the DMK’s Kanimozhi, Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s K Kavitha, the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Misa Bharti, and MPs of the Telugu Desam Party and the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The TMC chief said the havoc caused by demonetisation, the goods and services tax, and bank frauds would ensure that it was now time for the BJP government to “pack up and leave”.
She also said the BJP had weakened institutions, including the Election Commission. Banerjee said the Lok Sabha Speaker should allow the House to take up the no-confidence motion, and it should be debated.
Raut said his party and Banerjee had “a very warm” relationship and there were certain things which Banerjee wanted to convey to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Banerjee later said she “respects” the Shiv Sena.
“At least it does not do politics with a gun in its hand. There is no party more communal than the BJP,” Banerjee said.
