Mamata meets and tweets BJP foes

Mamata with Oman in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Shyamal Maitra

TT, Calcutta: Mamata Banerjee raised her national pitch on Friday, reaching out to leaders from the north, west and the south after an anti-Centre diatribe in the Assembly three days before a planned Delhi trip.

The Trinamul chief and Bengal chief minister tweeted birthday greetings to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and wishes for ailing DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi to recuperate quickly, capping the posts with a meeting with National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, in Calcutta for a seminar on Saturday, met Mamata at state secretariat Nabanna where the two discussed the Kashmir situation and national issues.

Omar, considered a key ally in Mamata's national plans, threw his weight behind her and indicated willingness to back her as the prime ministerial candidate of an anti-BJP front.

"She has done good work in the state and we would want the nation to also benefit from her experience. We are trying to form an alliance to bring together all parties that oppose the BJP. We need to unite to face the BJP in 2019," Omar said.

Asked if the Congress is welcome on the platform, Omar said: "The situation is such that nobody who is against the BJP can be left out. We (the Opposition parties) basically have no major differences and need to come together to take on the BJP as a united force."

Mamata said the federal front was a "broad platform" of all anti-BJP parties, except a few regional forces with their own state-specific compulsions.

"The BJP's strategy is to impose presidential form of elections to bring dictatorship to this country. We cannot, and will not, let that happen. Our ultimate goal is to defeat the BJP in 2019," she said.

In the Assembly earlier in the day, Mamata accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "misleading" people on the recent hike in minimum support prices (MSP) of kharif crops - the core theme of his July 16 Kisan Kalyan Rally at Midnapore.

"The Prime Minister is misinforming people on the MSP increase. The Centre has increased the MSP by Rs 200 only. But it is claiming the hike is of 50 per cent. That is totally false. He (Modi) said the Centre will double farmers' income by 2022. We have already done that. Around 12,000 farmers have committed suicide in this country but not a single from Bengal," Mamata told the Assembly.