West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Wednesday.
Highlights
- Mamata Banerjee held non-stop meetings with opposition leaders in Delhi
- She says she wanted to invite them to her mega-rally on January 19
- TMC chief is seen to be nursing prime ministerial ambitions
On a three-day visit to Delhi, Mamata Banerjee has kept a packed diary, meeting opposition party leaders as well as BJP critics and in-house rebels. "Dui hajaar uneesh, BJP finish (2019, BJP finish)," her tag line told to reporters in Bengali, summed up the theme of her non-stop meetings in the capital. Ms Banerjee says she wanted to invite political leaders to her mega-rally on January 19, pitched as a show of opposition unity ahead of the 2019 national election.
On Tuesday evening, she met with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son and party chief Rahul Gandhi, who recently indicated that he was open to Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati being projected as Prime Ministerial candidate for a combined opposition in 2019.
"PM will be decided later, let's first defeat the BJP," she said, indicating that any opposition grouping to take on the BJP would leave the tricky and divisive subject of prime ministerial candidate until after the elections.
Meeting the Gandhis in the middle of a huge political row over the new citizen list excluding four million people in Assam - a new rallying point for opposition parties to band together against the government in 2019 - Ms Banerjee said "fighting the polls together" was discussed.
"We discussed current politics and the possibility of all of us contesting elections together in future. In 2019 it will be collective leadership. First priority is to remove BJP. We will fight together. Whichever party is strong, will fight in respective states. We are strong in our State. We can fight on our own," said the chief minister.
Mamata Banerjee met YSR Congress lawmaker Sai Reddy who presented her with a pink rose.
Though she was evasive on talk of her being the prime ministerial candidate, the Bengal Chief Minister left very little doubt that she is ready to play a bigger role. "I maintain the best of relations with everyone. It is a parampara (tradition)...a courtesy. I am happy to meet all of them," she said on the suggestion that she was aiming to be the pivot of the opposition coalition.
Yesterday, Ms Banerjee met Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar. She followed it up with a meeting with BJP lawmaker Shatrughan Sinha and former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Ram Jethmalani - both former BJP leaders and all three sharp critics of the BJP.
"I invited them to participate in the rally in Kolkata. The people who fight against the ruling party win," she said after the meeting at Ram Jethmalani's home.
Mamata Banerjee met BJP leaders Shatrughan Sinha and former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Ram Jethmalani
This morning, she began her diary with a courtesy call to BJP veteran and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, who has been virtually sidelined and kept out of decision-making in the party.
"I know Advaniji for a long time. I met him and asked him about his health," Ms Banerjee said after the 15-minute meeting. Sources close to Mr Advani said the Chief Minister always meets with him every time she is in Delhi during a parliament session. The Chief Minister also met suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad.
Later, Ms Banerjee met Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad. She also met with Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai, Kerala Congress-Mani leader Jose K. Mani and Samajwadi leader Jaya Bachchan.
In a day of marathon meetings in Delhi, Mamata Banerjee met leaders from various parties
Ms Banerjee, who visited the Central Hall of Parliament, also met lawmakers of Andhra Pradesh's ruling TDP, which pulled out of the BJP-led coalition in March.