Mamata likely to meet Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday

MP | 21 May 2023 | Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Nabanna on Tuesday afternoon. Kejriwal soon after his meeting with his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that he will be calling upon Banerjee on Tuesday in Kolkata. 

According to sources in the state unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Kejriwal is expected to arrive in Kolkata on Tuesday morning and on the same afternoon he will have a one-on-one meeting with Banerjee. 

The Delhi Chief Minister is supposed to fly back to New Delhi on the same evening. “Opposition leaders from different non-BJP states often come to Kolkata to meet our party supremo Mamata Banerjee and seek her opinion on Opposition unity against the BJP. Her life has become synonymous with movement. 

So, leaders of all non-BJP states acknowledge her efforts of launching movements against the anti-people policies of the saffron party," TMC leader Chandrima Bhttacharjee said, reacting to Kejriwal’s meeting with Banerjee. Bhttacharjee also said that the party supremo is working to strengthen the Opposition unity. 

Last month, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav came to Kolkata and held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat following which Banerjee pitched for a grand alliance of non-BJP parties shunning any ego clash to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Parliamentary elections. 

Before Kumar and Yadav, Samajwadi Party leader and the leader of the Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Akhilesh Yadav, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and former Karnataka Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy met Banerjee with the same objective of consolidation of unity of the regional parties to take on the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

After Congress defeated the BJP in the recent Karnataka Assembly elections, Banerjee had said that she will support the Congress where it is strong in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but reiterated that she expects the latter to also stand by the stronger regional parties 

in other states to oust the BJP from power. “I have supported you in Karnataka and you are fighting with me everyday, (particularly within the state), this should not be the policy. This formula is applicable to all political parties. If you want to get good things, then you also have to sacrifice in some areas," Banerjee had said.

She reiterated that the strong political parties in the respective states should be given priority which will ensure a level-playing ground in the Opposition fight ‘to save the country, to save democracy and to save the people’. 

Earlier on Sunday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Kejriwal called for Opposition unity to take on the BJP as the JD(U) leader met the AAP convenor at his residence here and extended "complete support" to him in the ongoing face-off with the Centre over the control of administrative services. 

Kejriwal said he would meet leaders of various parties to ensure that any bill brought to replace the recent central ordinance, which virtually negated the May 11 Supreme Court order that ruled in favour of his government, is not passed in Rajya Sabha and also urged Kumar to reach out to them to rally support on the issue. 

If the bill is defeated in Rajya Sabha, it will send out a message that the BJP will lose the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he claimed. “It will be the semi-final of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” the AAP national convenor told reporters outside his residence after meeting Kumar and his deputy and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. 

Kejriwal will be also meeting the chiefs of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP this week seeking their support. Kumar said the Centre’s actions were “strange” and “baffling”. 

“How can you take away an elected government’s power,” the Janata Dal (United) leader asked. He said Kejriwal is doing good work in Delhi and it’s surprising that his government is being stopped from doing its work. 

“That’s why we are saying that all (Opposition parties) in the country should come together,” he said.

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/mamata-likely-to-meet-delhi-cm-arvind-kejriwal-on-tuesday-519419