Mamata Banerjee will hold a “preparatory meeting” next month for her proposed January 19 rally that the Bengal chief minister aims to convert into a platform for all non-BJP parties in the country.
Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said the November 16 meeting with all elected representatives of the party would set the stage for the January show from where Mamata was likely to call for ousting the BJP from the Centre.
“We will hold a preparatory meeting in November for the Brigade rally. All MPs, MLAs, councillors, panchayat samiti heads, district and block presidents have been asked to attend the meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium here. Mamata Banerjee will address it and set preparation guidelines,” said Chatterjee.
Some in Trinamul said it was too early now to speculate on the turnout at the January rally. A few other regional party leaders in Delhi echoed them.
A source recounted that Mamata had come to Delhi in late July, during Parliament’s monsoon session, to personally invite leaders to the Brigade rally, which she announced during Trinamul’s Martyrs’ Day programme in Calcutta on July 21. “It’s three months away. Our party will definitely attend but it is too early to say who will go,’’ an RJD leader said.
Telugu Desam sources said Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was in regular touch with Mamata. The Desam is planning a big rally in December in Andhra to cap its ongoing Nammaka Droham-Kutra Rajakeeyalapai Dharma Porata Bahiranga Sabhas’ (Fight against Betrayal and Collusion Politics meetings) being organised in every district.
Leaders of “all like-minded parties” will be invited to the last Desam meeting, said a source. Naidu, a key player in the United Front coalition from 1996-98, is in contact with other parties now, the source added.
“All these regional party leaders have ambitions to lead the anti-BJP formation. They will keep trying as the situation remains fluid,” said a Calcutta political scientist.
The regional parties are awaiting the results of the upcoming elections in BJP-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
“Everybody wants to see how the BJP and the Congress fare. The next round of strategies will be drawn up after that,” said the political scientist.
For all the talk of a “Mahagathbandhan” or Grand Alliance, most Opposition parties insist it will be a post-poll arrangement based on the Lok Sabha election verdict.
Three possibilities are being discussed if the BJP tally falls to 200 or below. Two involve an Opposition-led coalition, with either the 1996 model when the Congress supported from outside, or the 2004 example when the Grand Old Party led such a post-poll alliance. There is also the possibility of some regional parties moving to the BJP to help it sew up a weak coalition without Prime Minister Narendra Modi at its head, like in the case of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA that included the Desam and Trinamul.
For now, the priority is to stitch up state-level alliances to ensure greatest consolidation of anti-BJP votes.