Mamata guarded on KCR proposal to keep Cong out
KOLKATA: The meeting between West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Telangana counterpart Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao took place on Monday with palpable differences on the role of the Congress in the proposed joint forum, or a federal front, to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
After the two-hour meeting at the state secretariat in Howrah, Rao said the aim is to create a nonBJP, non-Congress forum since the transfer of power from BJP to Congress won’t achieve the goal of national development.
“The federal front is not a routine model. If power shifts from the BJP to the Congress, will there be any miracle? No. But the country needs a kind of miracle now and, hence, we want the front to be a non-BJP and nonCongress one that can give an alternative model of development to the country,” Rao said.
Despite Rao emphasising his rejection of the BJP-Congress binary, Banerjee chose her words carefully and did not mention the Congress. “Mr Rao has expressed his opinion. Politics is a continuous process. Dialogues have just started. Let the federal front be strong. There will be discussions with all like-minded parties,” she said, adding, “There is no hurry.”
Both leaders termed Monday’s meeting as “fruitful”.
Banerjee shares a cordial relation with former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. In the Rajya Sabha elections, she has extended support to Congress candidate in Bengal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, guaranteeing him a seat in RS.
In Bengal, BJP leaders seemed to be cheering over the differences between the two leaders. “The people of India have seen enough of such political gimmick and are tired of it. Such attempts are a futile exercise to satisfy their ego and greed for power. The more they do such things, the more the public would support Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Rahul Sinha, BJP’s national secretary.
Congress RS MP Pradip Bhattacharya appreciated Banerjee’s gesture and said she has rightly understood that without Congress, there cannot be an antiBJP alternative. “Former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat tried a non-BJP and non-Congress front. He failed miserably. It is good that Mamata Banerjee is not repeating the mistake,” said Bhattacharya, elected to the Rajya Sabha with TMC’s support.
Rao praised Banerjee as an administrator. “I have come to Kolkata after almost 13 years. I am amazed by the kind of progress the city has made under Didi’s leadership,” he said.