Mamata meets Rahul, Sonia and others, calls on Advani too

New Delhi: In political optics that bode well for Opposition unity, Trinamul Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the first time since he took over as the head of his party. Mr Gandhi met the West Bengal chief minister along with his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Having earlier indicated that she was best suited for the job of the Prime Minister in case an Opposition alliance came to power at the Centre in 2019, Ms Banerjee had refused to meet with Mr Gandhi until now except briefly sharing a stage with him during the swearing-in of H.D. Kumaraswamy as the Karnataka chief minister. During the last budget session, she had met Mrs Gandhi but not the Congress president.

While sources said the meeting came about after the Congress made it clear that Mrs Gandhi would not meet anybody alone, it was clear that the Congress had itself also conceded a lot of ground when leaders of the stature of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel walked into the TMC office in Parliament and met Ms Banerjee in the morning.

The three leaders discussed a host of issues including how to coordinate among themselves to corner the Modi-led BJP.

A senior Congress leader said the two parties decided to chalk out floor strategies against the government. In a statement after meeting the Gandhis, Ms Banerjee said: “BJP is politically nervous. They know they won’t come back to power in 2019. So they are not speaking responsibly. We won’t respond to abuse with abuse. It is not our culture. We believe in the politics of courtesy. In 2019 it will be a collective leadership. The first priority is to remove the 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”.

The TMC chief also spent her day meeting and visiting political leaders of various hue which included TDP, YSR (Congress), DMK, RJD, SP and JD(S). She also invited them to her rally on January 19 in Kolkata.

In a move which caught everybody off-guard, the she also met veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani at his chamber in Parliament. It might be recalled that Ms Banerjee had said not all BJP leaders were bad.  
and had singled out external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and home minister Rajnath Singh as being people “who are not bad”.

“I am not for any post. I am interested in seeing that all parties should work together. All political parties will sit together and decide,” she said.

She also appealed to all the opposition parties to send a joint delegation to the Election Commission against EVM tampering and holding polls on ballots. “All Opposition parties should go to EC on this matter,” she said.