Mamata Banerjee Leaves for Delhi to Meet Opposition Leaders
She is scheduled to attend a meeting of the opposition parties, convened by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, in the national capital.
Kolkata, March 26: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left for New Delhi today, saying she would be meeting the leaders of several opposition parties during her four-day visit to the national capital.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo left for New Delhi in the evening. She is scheduled to attend a meeting of the opposition parties, convened by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, in the national capital.
At the airport, she told reporters that it was a "routine visit". "The Central Hall is a famous hall, where I will meet the leaders of my party and if the leaders of other parties want to meet me, I welcome them. We are all friends," she said.
A strident critic of the BJP-led central government and its policies, Banerjee had recently called for unity among all the anti-BJP forces to defeat the saffron party in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
On whether she would be meeting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi during her visit to New Delhi, the chief minister said, "She is hospitalised. Let her recover. I do not want to disturb her."
Asked whether she would be meeting Pawar, Banerjee said, "We (TMC) have 46 MPs (including 12 Rajya Sabha members) there. Sometimes I get the opportunity to go there and meet them. I have worked as an MP for seven terms and I know many leaders and MPs of several political parties."
Pawar has called a meeting of all the opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, to discuss the strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. NCP leader Praful Patel had met Banerjee earlier this month here and invited her to attend the meet.
The TMC chief had also met TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who called on her to discuss the process of setting up a federal front against the BJP-led government at the Centre.