Chandrababu Naidu and Sonia Gandhi to share political space for 1st time

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party boss Chandrababu Naidu and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will share the political podium for the first time on Monday when Opposition parties meet to hammer out a joint strategy to take on the ruling NDA for 2019 polls. Naidu and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee are among the key movers of the meet, which will be held a day before the winter session of Parliament. Left, JD(S), DMK, SP and AAP are also expected to attend with Congress playing host.


But Annexe hall in Parliament may not witness the presence of BSP leader Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, principal political players in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. Their attendance was not confirmed to Congress and TDP leaders, who are actively involved in the conclave.

Sources in TDP closely monitoring the development told TOI, “Both Mayawati, Akhilesh along with Ajit Singh of RLD are keen to take on BJP, but they have sticky local issues to tackle.”

Stalin, Gowda to attend meeting

The two leaders are likely to attend a second meeting of anti-BJP parties this month, they said. The meeting will be followed by a joint press conference of all leaders. Sonia will participate in discussions, but won’t be part of the media briefing. And the Opposition plans to take forward their plan with the slogan — Save Democracy.

The AP chief minister, who is actively coordinating with the Opposition, telephoned non-NDA chief ministers of states on Saturday. TDP sources confirmed chief ministers of West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi, Puducherry will attend the meet. Also, leaders like Sharad Pawar of NCP, Farooq Abdullah of National Conference, Tejaswi Yadav from RJD, MK Stalin of DMK and JDS leader former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda will attend the meeting.

Importantly, the meeting will discuss how to cobble together an alliance to defeat BJP at the Centre with a few parties in the proposed front being rivals on their turfs. “AAP and Congress don’t go along in Delhi, Trinamool and CPM are rivals in Bengal, though we have an example of SP and BSP joining hands in UP and Congress and TDP in Telangana,” a TDP leader said.

Congress is banking on Naidu to get AAP and TMC to get going in the efforts. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel and Naidu are also actively involved in coordination.