I.N.D.I.A meeting today; Mamata says ready to walk with Left

New Delhi: Top I.N.D.I.A leaders will meet here on Tuesday to reignite vigour into the Opposition bloc that has curiously remained inactive for the past three months with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking to set the stage by saying she is “open to” an alliance with the Left parties in Bengal and she is ready to “walk with anybody”.

The meeting is expected to discuss the seat-sharing process and redrawing a joint strategy to tackle the resurgent BJP after the Congress suffered setbacks in the recent Assembly elections. Seat sharing will be high on agenda with Mamata among others emphasising that it should be a priority.

Leaders like Mamata, her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Uddhav Thackeray and RJD's Lalu Prasad have already reached the national capital for the meet, the first after its Mumbai conclave on August 30-September 1 with some holding consultations in person and over phone. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Mamata and Uddhav here separately and held discussions.

While speaking to a select group of journalists here, Mamata projected herself as one who does not want to rock the boat and insisted that all matters will be discussed in detail and a collective decision will be taken. She said she will not speak out of turn about any issue concerning the bloc.

Asked whether she was open to seat sharing with the Left in Bengal, the Trinamool Congress chief said, "...I don't have any grievance (against them)...I can walk with anybody. I don't have a problem."

On an alliance with Congress, which is in alliance with the Left and opposing the Trinamool, and whether she would agree to a demand from it for a higher number of seats, she said, "Somebody should bell the cat" and she does not have any problems. At the same time, she reminded that Congress has just two seats in Bengal while insisting that she is open to discussions.

Mamata also made it clear that the question of the bloc's prime minister face is not an urgent issue before them and a decision would be taken only after the elections. Her assertion came even after Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh pitched her as the prime ministerial face and urged the Congress to abandon its "Zamindari culture" and project leaders like her as the face of the bloc.

However, she appeared not enthused about Nitish being projected as the face after suggestions that he might be emerging as a face in Hindi belt. She said, "Why discriminate? Why does this talk about eastern belt, northern belt, Hindi belt, cow belt? Why should we differentiate...We have to work together."

On whether projecting a single face would help the bloc, she reminded how H D Deve Gowda, I K Gujral, Manmohan Singh and "even AB Vajpayee" were chosen as prime ministers.

Mamata said BSP supremo Mayawati is unlikely to join the bloc as if she wanted, she would have attended previous meetings. "She is having some problems," she said without elaborating.

She also refused to be drawn into questions on what went wrong with the Congress in the Assembly elections as well as on Caste Census and DMK’s pitch against ‘Sanatan Dharma’. She said Trinamool would not say that Congress has a big brother attitude or would advise Rahul Gandhi on how to design his campaign.

Asked whether the bloc lost time through inactivity in the last three months, she said, "Why are you asking the same question? It is better late than never." She said she is not upset with the pace of things evolving in the I.N.D.I.A bloc.

Asked about the perception that the BJP has emerged stronger and 2024 is a done deal, she answered in the negative and said, "I don't accept 2024 is a done deal...the BJP is not strong, we are weak. We need to work together to overcome it."

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who arrived in the capital for the meeting, said the committees that were formed earlier have been working behind the scenes. "Wherever there are regional parties, the BJP is nowhere to be seen. Most of the regional parties are within the I.N.D.I.A bloc," he added.