Is Mamata Banerjee Trying to be Face of Opposition Coalition? TMC Chief Meets NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar in Delhi
In the last one month, Mamata Banerjee has met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, appreciated Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu for quitting NDA and has expressed her support to Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav.
New Delhi, March 27: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is in Delhi to meet opposition leaders to discuss strategy about forming a 'combined-opposition'. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader has met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar and is expected to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the evening. According to reports, Sharad Pawar will be hosting a dinner on Tuesday for the leaders of opposition parties to discuss and form strategy for the General Election 2019 to take on the BJP. Earlier in the month, on March 13, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had hosted a dinner for opposition leaders and Mamata Banerjee had skipped the dinner though she had sent her party leaders as her representative.
According to reports coming in, she has told the media persons that politics was indeed an agenda of the meeting with Sharad Pawar. Reports say that Sharad Pawar has called for a dinner of opposition party leaders but denied the report saying "there is no dinner, no party". However, picture of Mamata meeting Pawar has created curiosity among political observers:
Over the past few days, Mamata has been keen to come across as the face of opposition unity and wants to be seen as BJP's nemesis in chief. On 24 March, Mamata had criticised the BJP-led central government for its stand on Andhra Pradesh and had said that it bulldozed states to show them that it was doing a favour by giving funds. She had also praised Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for quitting NDA over the special status issue for Andhra Pradesh.
The TMC chief had also appreciated the coming together of SP-BSP in Uttar Pradesh in the bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats. She had praised Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav for their understanding in the polls when Mayawati's BSP decided to support Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats. The Samajwadi Party candidate won both the seats which were supposed to be BJP's bastion, especially the Gorakhpur seat which was represented by the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath for two decades.
On March 19, after Mamata met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, she told the media that, "In a democracy such situation comes up when all parties need to come together to work ... We don't want a particular party to rule the nation and do whatever they like." Mamata Banerjee's party leaders had even said on March 26 that she will not meet Rahul Gandhi until the latter invited her. The TMC has been emphasizing that there can be "collective leadership" among the opposition. If her actions are anything to go by, Mamata Banerjee seems to be aiming for that collective leadership.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 27, 2018 03:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).