Abhishek meets Akhilesh in Delhi, Uddhav in Mumbai
Times of India | 7 June 2024
KOLKATA: In the backdrop of growing unease over CPM getting considerable elbow room in the INDIA bloc deliberations despite drawing a blank in Bengal, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday met SP chief Akhilesh Singh and AAP's Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh in Delhi, and made an unscheduled detour to Mumbai to meet Uddhav Thackeray before returning to Kolkata around midnight.
Abhishek's packed day of meetings came after Bengal CM and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on June 4 threw her weight behind INDIA bloc but took issue with CPM's "monitoring" of the alliance.
In Delhi, Abhishek went to meet Akhilesh for close to an hour. After Congress, SP and Trinamool have the highest number of MPs in INDIA.
Later, Chadha and Singh arrived at the TMC general secretary's home in Delhi. They spoke for around 30 minutes. After the Lok Sabha election results, CM Banerjee had spoken to Akhilesh, Uddhav and Sunita Kejriwal over the phone. A party member said the discussions were "very warm".
TMC's leader in Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien, who travelled with Abhishek to Mumbai, said: "Modi's BJP ran govt in India for 10 years. He and his govt have been rejected. That is the starting point. We move forward from here." He refused to elaborate. Abhishek did not speak to the media.
A meeting was held at Matoshree for 90 minutes. Sena (UBT) sources said they discussed the way forward for INDIA and Abhishek conveyed a message from CM Banerjee.
A TMC neta said: "Trinamool Congress is the only party (in INDIA bloc) which has fought and won alone against BJP. We took on BJP and their unspoken allies in Bengal - Bengal Congress and CPM. Other parties all have electoral adjustments with Congress. Trinamool does not have these compulsions. People in Bengal rejected the Congress-CPM alliance. This tie-up also resulted in BJP scraping through in six Bengal Lok Sabha seats, else their tally would have been six lower."
On Sunday, CM Banerjee had said: "One thing makes me feel bad, INDIA bloc was going well... I support them. But CPM monitors them completely... why will CPM be their spokesperson? Every regional party has its own self-respect."
On coalition politics, she had said: "When things are decided after speaking to all, it is called a coalition. It is to take everyone along, not leaving anybody out and not strong-arming anyone."