Didi’s ‘1:1 formula’ to create anti-BJP front

New Delhi: As the Congress deftly pushes for Opposition unity, Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit the ground running in her quest for a  Federal Front and came up with a “1:1 formula” that proposes state-level alliances be formed to defeat the BJP.

The West Bengal chief minister met leaders of political parties across the spectrum, including Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, DMK’s Kanimozhi, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav and MPs of the Telugu Desam Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Shiv Sena on Tuesday. She is likely to meet UPA chaiperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday evening.

Among all those with whom Ms Banerjee held meetings in the Parliament House complex on Tuesday, the longest discussion of nearly an hour was held with Mr Pawar whom the TMC chief visited in his office.

Top sources told this newspaper that at the meeting, Ms Banerjee pitched for a Federal Front. NCP leader Praful Patel told the media that both leaders agreed that there should be “maximum unity” among the Opposition parties to take on the BJP.

“The situation will evolve in the coming months for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. There are of course a lot of different views on what kind of approach should be taken. But certainly what the leaders discussed was that Opposition unity should be the maximum possible as has been witnessed today in Uttar Pradesh, where the BSP and SP have  started working together, and therefore it is important that political differences among the Opposition parties should be resolved,” Mr Patel said. The TMC chief has been one of the chief proponents of a non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front, and has projected herself as the natural leader of any such grouping.

“All of us are together, even if earlier this (unity) was not there. Who is with them (BJP)? Even Ram Vilas Paswan will switch sides if needed. If Mayawati and Akhilesh call a meeting, I will go. They should just offer a cup of tea to us,” Ms Banerjee told the media during her visit to the national capital. Seemingly pitching for the top job, she continued: “I have been a seven-time MP and four-times minister at the Centre. I know this country very well.”

On whether she would meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Ms Banerjee said she had sent party MP Dinesh Trivedi to the Congress office in Parliament to say that she would like to call on Mrs Gandhi “to enquire about her health”. However, the former Congress president had already left Parliament House and Mr Trivedi conveyed the message to Kerala MP K.C. Venugopal.

She added that she was in touch with Mrs Gandhi through text messages. Top sources in the Congress said a meeting between the  two was possible on Wednesday at 7.30 pm. Congress sources had said earlier that Mrs Gandhi might meet Ms Banerjee and that Congress president Rahul Gandhi might “walk in” during the discussions.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, the TMC chief said she was not averse to the idea of the Congress being part of any coalition against the BJP.