Lalu Yadav, who attended Mamata Banerjee's swearing in ceremony in Kolkata, said all secular, regional political powers must work together to stop the BJP.
Highlights
- At Mamata Banerjee's oath-taking, regional party chiefs gather
- Will call meting soon to discuss new anti-bjp front, says Lalu
- Congress needs to strike and work on alliances, says Lalu
Lalu Yadav was provided with some good food for thought after Mamata Banerjee's swearing in ceremony today in Kolkata as the Chief Minister of Bengal.
Ms Banerjee's menu for out of town A-listers like Lalu, as he is known, included fish fry, prawns, mango and coconut sandesh.
At the lunch were chef ministers Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi and Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh and also Nitish Kumar of Bihar, who partners with Lalu in running the government in his state.
In that roll call lies what Lalu describes as the beginning of a new coalition to take on the BJP in the general elections of 2019. Lalu said that it was to ensure Ms Banerjee's big victory in Bengal that neither he nor Mr Kumar campaigned in Bengal for the Congress, which is their coalition partner in Bengal.
"Nitish Kumar or I campaigning in Bengal would have created confusion in the state," Mr Yadav said, adding, "We stopped the BJP in Bihar who also had plans to enter West Bengal."
The recent state elections have left the Congress in the 'Intensive Care Unit', according to critics, with huge defeats racked up in states like Assam and Kerala.
Lalu, however, said that the Congress is not finished and offered this advice: that the Congress must work harder and better on alliances.
Big defeat in Assam governed by the Congress for 15 years was attributed partly to the Congress' refusal to strike partnership with local parties such as the Asom Gana Parishad or AGP.