TMC leaders meet Uddhav Thackeray, discuss government formation

Mumbai: Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday night called on Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai. The meeting between the two prominent INDIA bloc leaders assumed significance as it came amid government formation process by the BJP-led Nationalist Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre.

Banerjee met Thackeray at his residence 'Matoshree' in Mumbai. The meeting lasted for around 90 minutes. Banerjee was accompanied by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien.

Speaking about the meeting, the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party BJP is in a minority, but still efforts are being made to form the government.

"Narendra Modi and his party is in a minority but they are still trying to form the government and cooking 'khichdi.' But we have a doubt that they will not cook it the right way and this will be a loss to the country and there will be political instability. Such things create danger to the country. So we held talks about what can be done in such circumstances."

Raut said leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), another INDIA bloc constituent have also spoken to Thackeray.

The BJP-led NDA won the majority in the Lok Sabha polls by bagging 293 seats, which is comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Of these, the BJP alone won 240 seats.

On the other hand, the opposition bloc INDIA secured 233 seats, 99 of them by the Congress. Both the Sena (UBT), which bagged nine Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, and the Trinamool Congress, whose tally stood at 29 in West Bengal, are part of the anti-BJP opposition alliance.