She may feign disinterest in being the next prime minister, but she has begun laying the groundwork to make sure that he or she isn’t from the BJP.
In a massive outreach to Opposition parties from the north and the south, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, fresh off the boat of a massive state victory in an extremely closely fought battle in her home state, has been on the road visiting prominent leaders to mount a united fight against the BJP juggernaut in the 2024 general elections.
Mamata’s star-studded schedule on Wednesday included Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, and Aam Admi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
A photograph of the WB CM clad in her iconic white saree walking out of 10 Janpath as Sonia and Rahul look on while seeing her out revealed more than it should about what role Mamata will play in shaping the Opposition’s strategy if they were to come together.
This is her first visit to the national capital ever since she won the West Bengal assembly polls in May this year.
“Hum akele koi kuch nahi hai (alone we are nothing). Everyone has to come on board,” she was quoted as saying after the meeting, in a clear indication that she was trying to resurrect a united front against the BJP.
“I personally believe that we need to be united to defeat the BJP,” she said, adding that she was more than happy to take the backseat while someone else took the reins.
“I am not a leader but I am a cadre. I am a street person. I will work as a worker.”
Throwing down the gauntlet to the BJP with her now-famous election warcry of ‘Khela hobe’ (game is on) that led her to victory over the saffron party in the state, Mamata had also asserted that ‘there will be khela across the country’.
“If Bengal could do it, so can the other states,” she said, addressing the media before meeting Sonia.
Recently, while addressing a Martyrs’ Day event on July 21 virtually from her residence at Kalighat in South Kolkata, she had said, “It is difficult to predict what will happen in 2024 (Lok Sabha Poll) but we have to start preparing for it now. I would like to request senior leaders like Sharad Pawar ji to arrange a meeting (of Opposition leaders) in Delhi as I will be in the national capital. We can’t afford to waste time.”
Today, she met DMK MP Kanimozhi in Delhi before dropping by to meet lyricist-poet Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi. Banerjee is said to have requested Akhtar to write a song on “Khela Hobe,” her poll slogan.
There were murmurs of her visiting NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, too, but plans apparently did not fructify.
Modi Vs the rest
“It is a continuous process… When Modi will fight the next election, it will be with the country,” the chief minister said implying that it will be Modi versus a united opposition in the next Lok Sabha polls.
Gujarat, the home state of Modi and Shah, will go to polls in December next year, and on July 21, when the TMC observes ‘Martyrs’ Day, it had aired Gujarati translation of Banerjee’s speech in all districts of the state. It was also beamed for the first time, in other states like Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
The landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly polls has buoyed Banerjee to try and reach out to the rest of the country. She is being positioned by her party as the face of a united opposition in their bid to oust the BJP in the 2024 general election. The CM, however, has been ambivalent about it.
You are asking me the name of the child even before it is born, she quipped to a query related to a “united opposition”.
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