Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien said the opposition has been working together well
Mamata Banerjee didn't just discuss "the weather or
gol gappas" with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray when they met in Mumbai earlier this month, Derek O'Brien, senior leader of the West Bengal chief minister's Trinamool Congress told NDTV, when asked this evening whether the two leaders had discussed the possibility of a political alignment for the 2019 national elections.
This was the TMC's first admission on record that politics was discussed.
Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya
had called on Ms Banerjee at the five-star hotel she stayed in during her three-day Mumbai visit, focused on business meetings to drawing investment for state. But the meeting with the Shiv Sena grabbed all the attention with speculation that the BJP's oldest but disgruntled ally is weighing political realignments.
Mr Thackeray's meeting days before with Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar only fuelled the buzz that the Shiv Sena could be considering changing sides as opposition parties discuss coming together to take on the BJP in 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek re-election.
"I believe Narendra Modi can be stopped in 2019," Mr O'Brien told NDTV. "Of course it's difficult, but I think what gives me confidence is that in the last six-nine months I have actually seen within parliament and outside parliament the opposition is working together... I do believe that it cannot be a Mr Modi versus A, B or C. We have to get him to fight 29 local elections... that's the first way to do it."
"Number two, the opposition narrative has to be on what I call 'judge', since the BJP loves the acronym JUDGE... judge them on Jobs, on Underperformance, D for Demonetisation, G for GST and E for the Economic situation. But no getting distracted with issues which polarise, leave them out, that's what the BJP wants," the Trinamool leader said.
To test the ground, there have reportedly been discussions between the Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena on coordination in parliament. The Mumbai meeting, sources have said was set up when Aditya Thackeray, 27, met Mamata Banerjee at the finals of the Under 17 football World Cup played at Kolkata's Eden Gardens last month.
Uddhav Thackeray had said after the meeting that they did not discuss politics, but that the West Bengal chief minister shared the Shiv Sena's views on PM Modi's economic policies like the notes ban and new national tax GST. Both parties have been very critical of the reforms.
Though the Shiv Sena is the BJP's partner on paper both at the centre and in Maharashtra, it has played the role of opposition for many months,
attacking almost daily, both the central government and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's government in the state.
Recently, the Sena also changed its rating of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, with senior leader Sanjay Raut assessing that, "There is a substantial change in Rahul Gandhi since 2014. People like to listen to him now... A leader is one who is accepted by people."
Mr Gandhi, who has also
won repeated praise from Sharad Pawar recently after months of strained relations with the former ally, is expected to take over as Congress president next month, replacing his mother Sonia Gandhi and his party hopes to see him lead a coalition of opposition parties that it is encouraging.
Mr Pawar, seen for a while to be getting closer to the BJP, said he was open to a coalition with the Congress in Gujarat, which votes next month.
"The Congress and the NCP coming together is not Mahagatbandhan. We have been together for a long time," said the Congress's Prithviraj Chavan last week, also adding, "But if the Shiv Sena also comes into a loose understanding... I don't think it is an alliance but an electoral understanding that will be good because everybody sees the BJP as a major threat."