One-to-one Didi formula

Mamata with Pawar.   Picture by Prem Singh

Anita Joshua, TT, Mar 28, 2018, New Delhi: Parties including former and estranged NDA partners headed to the Trinamul office in Parliament on Tuesday as Mamata Banerjee held open house, trying to become a rallying point for all who oppose the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly.

Mamata later said that in a state where a party has a strong base, it should be helped to fight the BJP on its own to avoid a split in anti-Modi votes.

"It should be a one-to-one fight; we should all help the BSP-SP in Uttar Pradesh, DMK in Tamil Nadu, TDP in Andhra Pradesh, TRS in Telangana, Laluji in Bihar, Naveen in Odisha," she told reporters.

Mamata had earlier in the day reached out for a meeting with Sonia Gandhi but it did not happen as the former Congress president was unwell.

Amid speculation about the two parties having difficulties working together since Rahul Gandhi took charge of the Congress, Mamata told the reporters she was in frequent touch with both Rahul and Sonia.

Trinamul MP Dinesh Trivedi had gone across to the Congress office in Parliament to find out whether Sonia was in and was told she had left because she was not feeling well.

"Let her recover first, I have no problem.... And I keep in touch every day; I have no problem," Mamata said to reporters' questions.

Asked about the possibility of meeting Rahul, the Bengal chief minister shot back: "I told you that I have reached out to Soniaji.... I anyway talk to Ahmedji (Ahmed Patel) every day. Rahulji also SMSes me sometimes, and we chat. There is no problem."

She appeared to be trying to quell speculation of her having issues with accepting Rahul as the leader of a coalition.

Many Opposition MPs dropped in at the Trinamul office through the day. In the afternoon, Mamata went over to the Nationalist Congress Party office to meet Sharad Pawar. They are said to have discussed the need for anti-Modi groups to unite.

"From Farooq Abdullah to M.K. Stalin, there should be unity of purpose to defeat forces that are working against India's cherished constitutional values," a source said.

Many of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties— such as the Biju Janata Dal, Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti - cannot do business with the Congress as they are in a direct fight with it in their states. Both Pawar and Mamata agreed they had to find a way around this problem.

Mamata, who this month helped the Congress win a Rajya Sabha berth from Bengal, is understood to be upset with the Congress for having still not embraced the coalition dharma.

"The Congress needs to understand the changed realities, that it cannot continue to call the shots without being accommodative," a source said. "The Congress should rein in some of its people like Adhir Chowdhury."

Parties that sent their MPs to meet Mamata included the BJD and the Shiv Sena, a BJP ally at the Centre, as well as the TRS, Desam, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Samajwadi Party.

She spent a considerable length of time with the RJD's Misa Bharati in a small enclosure within the office. When the two left the room, Mamata could be heard telling Misa to "take care of Laluji's health".

Asked whether Desam and the BJD could be trusted since they were once NDA partners, Mamata was candid enough to remind the journalists that so was Trinamul.

"But that was a different NDA, and there was Atalji. I'm not saying that all the BJP leaders are bad. We have no problem working with people like Rajnathji."

On the Sena's Sanjay Raut meeting her, she said: "They are also fighting."

As for the Sena being communal, her reply was: "They are not more communal than the BJP."

Mamata will on Wednesday extend her outreach to disgruntled Sangh parivar members by meeting BJP parliamentarian Shatrughan Sinha, party veteran Yashwant Sinha and former NDA minister Arun Shourie.