Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 27: The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee whose Trinamool Congress party won a spectacular victory against the entire might of the BJP in the recent state Assembly elections, is confident that all the opposition parties would soon come together to form a joint front against the ruling party in the Parliamentary elections.
“Opposition unity will automatically happen ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Banerjee, currently on a five-day visit to Delhi, said minutes after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
Ms. Banerjee is in the Capital for her first visit in two years after winning the West Bengal Assembly elections for a third time. During her five-day visit, she will be meeting a host of Opposition leaders. Buoyed by their victory especially in the face of a resurgent BJP, Banerjee’s meetings with the Opposition parties is being seen as a definitive sign that the TMC wants to play a larger role in national politics.
“Opposition unity will automatically happen,” Ms. Banerjee said. Asked if she will lead such a consortium of Opposition parties she said, “India will lead and we shall follow.”
The Lok Sabha elections are still some time away, she said but the preparations have to begin right away.
On Pegasus, she urged the BJP government to call for an all-party meeting to clear the air on its role in the whole issue. “The Prime Minister should call for an all-party meeting and consult us. There should be a Supreme Court monitored probe. Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee is among the potential targets whose names have surfaced as part of a worldwide investigation by a media consortium that includes India’s The Wire. Yesterday, she announced a judicial inquiry led by former Supreme Court judges – the first since the Pegasus scandal broke – to investigate reports that many Bengal leaders were targeted.
This was the first proper meeting between Modi and Banerjee after the bitter electoral spat and the subsequent post-poll violence in the state when an angry chief minister boycotted a review meeting held by the prime minister after cyclone devastated the state in May.
On meeting Modi, she said it was a courtesy call and that she was following the Constitutional protocol. “I had asked for an appointment with the PM to seek his blessings after winning the Bengal Assembly polls for the third time.” During the brief meeting, she said she has urged the Prime Minister to ensure more doses of COVID-19 vaccine for Bengal. “I am not against giving vaccines to other States, but considering the population of Bengal we need more doses,” she said.
“I also raised the pending issue of the change of name of the state from Bengal to Bangla. On this issue, he said, “He will see,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee and Modi had met briefly in May, when her move to skip Modi’s Cyclone Yaas review meeting became a huge flashpoint between the Centre and Bengal. Banerjee left the meeting after handing over a report. Then Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, caught in the crossfire, was recalled by the Centre but he retired on May 31 and became special adviser to the Bengal Chief Minister. In June the Centre warned him of “major penalty proceedings” for allegedly “not attending” the PM’s review meeting.
In Delhi, Banerjee will be meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. Banerjee also said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav would be meeting her in the next few days.
She has also sought an appointment from President Ramnath Kovind but Banerjee complained that protocol may come in the way. She said though she has got both doses of vaccine, she may need to get an RT PCR test too for the visit, which may be difficult.
She also met senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma and Abhishek Singhvi on Tuesday.
Banerjee has been a key figure in speculation swirling around the opposition’s attempts to join forces to take on Modi and the BJP in the 2024 national election. Her recent election victory in Bengal has buttressed her image as an opposition face that can challenge the BJP’s might.
She was last week named leader of the Trinamool parliamentary party though she is not an MP. The new role signals her readiness to play a larger role in national politics beyond Bengal.
