KOLKATA, HYDERABAD, MYSURU : TRINAMOOL Congress chief Mamata Banerjee shares similar thoughts with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekar Rao regarding the third front and she called up Chandrasekar Rao on Sunday.There is a broad agreement between TRS, TDP, DMK, TMC, SP and BSP to have better coordination inside Parliament.“Mamata has initiated the idea of federal parties coming together to defeat BJP. Many leaders of stature are in touch with her and are holding parleys,” Trinamool sources said. The party is also expected to reach out to Congress soon. In Chennai, DMK sources said the party might not be interested in an alliance that cuts Congress out of the picture because of the prevailing political equations in Tamil Nadu.
Speaking at a public meet in Purulia on Monday, Mamata took potshots at BJP, saying: “They say their target is Bengal. Our third front’s target is Delhi’s Red Fort. Bengal has never bowed down before anyone and will never do. We will show the way to the nation. We will not let them foment riots and steal people’s money from banks to use them for electoral victories.”
Siddu plan to beat Modi
WITH the saffron party sweeping polls in the northeastern states, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has set the tone for the Congress leadership to stitch secular parties together in a bid to check Modi’s march in the 2019 polls. Siddaramaiah, who has relentlessly been attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi at public functions and Congress rallies over the last couple of months, has now advocated that secular forces come together to counter Modi. Though he ruled out talks with Deve Gowda’s JD(S) for the Rajya Sabha or Assembly polls, he said it is the division of secular voles that is working in favour of the BJP. Siddaramaiah, the prominent face with a mass following in Karnataka, has for the first time come out in the open in favour of an alliance of secular parties in the Lok Sabha. This is in the backdrop of Telagana Rashtra Samithi Chief and Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao announcing that he is ready to work towards a qualitative change in Indian politics by forming an alternative political front other with Congress or BJP parties.
Interestingly, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee backed Chandrashekar Rao.
Mamata Banerjee has said a board-based alliance of Trinamool Congress and tribal parties would have produced a different result in Tripura and the other states where elections were recently held. People went to the BJP because they did not have an alternate to the Congress when they wanted to dump the incumbent government, she conceded.
Siddaramaiah’s statement gains importance as any further delay by the Congress leadership to hold talks and settle poll deals will again lead to a fractured mandate of secular votes, like it recently happened in Gujarat, to give Amit Shah-Modi the scope to warm up to regional parties.
Political commentator Muzafar Asadi has said that Congress should give more scope to regional parties and encourage collective leadership.
He said Siddaramiah’s suggestion should be quickly acted upon as many of the regional parties have worked with the BJP in the past. They should arrive at a pre-poll alliance lead by the Congress. All should overcome their ideological and personal differences and give adequate representation to parties that are strong in their regions.
He said the non-Congress alliance of Chandrashekar Rao will only divide secular votes..
Police detain BJP leadersDozens of BJP activists and cadre were detained on Monday when they tried to lay siege to CM’s camp office, Pragathi Bhavan, protesting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s recent remarks against Prime Minister Narendra ModiFollowing the protest call, police put the party’s state unit chief K Laxman and MLC N Ramachander Rao under house arrest till evening.
They also put several other senior leaders of the Saffron party under house arrest for most part of the dayKhairatabad MLA Ch Ramachandra Reddy was detained when he was proceeding towards CM camp office travelling in an auto-rickshaw. Several BJP activists were detained at Somajiguda and other places near Pragathi Bhavan. Police said that they took custody of several activists of BJP and shifted to different police stations to prevent any untoward incidents.