Didi, Stalin discuss federal front ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: With SP and BSP testing the waters in two Lok Sabha by-elections in UP, regional parties are exploring possibilities of joining hands to take on the BJP-led NDA in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has taken the lead in reaching out to TRS, DMK and Shiv Sena, among others.
A Trinamool insider said that Banerjee called up DMK working president MK Stalin on Sunday and discussed ways of building a front of federal parties to take on the BJP led NDA in the general elections.

“The two leaders were of the view that all federal parties should stay in touch and work cohesively as they are likely to do well in their respective states,” the source said. Banerjee had called up on March 1 too, to wish Stalin on his birthday.

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had said on Sunday that he would work for uniting non-BJP and non-Congress parties. Banerjee had called Rao and expressed her support to such a move. The Bengal CM also talked over phone recently with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Though Shiv Sena is part of NDA, it has announced that it will not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly polls in alliance with BJP. Banerjee had a 90-minute meeting earlier with Thackeray and his son Aditya during her last visit to Mumbai.

Other NDA partners like TDP, sulking over denial of special status to Andhra Pradesh, have also got in touch with Opposition leaders, including Trinamool. TDP MPs have discussed their issues with Trinamool leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. Union minister YS Chowdhary of TDP also met Banerjee during her visit to Hyderabad to invite her for his daughter’s wedding.

“It was Mamata Banerjee who initiated the idea of federal parties coming together to defeat BJP. With this in view, many parties are in touch with her and she is in touch with them,” Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien said.

This, however, is a disparate grouping and some parties have issues with others. Congress has not been a part of the deliberations, though one leader said that once its party chief Rahul Gandhi returned, they may get in touch with him. “Trinamool had approached Congress for a tie-up in Tripura but they did not agree,” a Trinamool leader said. The Opposition parties feel they have a chance in 2019 as BJP tally could fall by 100 seats from the 282 it won in 2014.

They see BJP’s losses in the Lok Sabha bypolls in Ajmer and Alwar and Congress retaining assembly seats in Mungaoli and Kolaras in MP as indications of BJP’s ‘waning fortunes’.