HD Kumaraswamy to meet Mamata Banerjee as 'federal' front is in making

Top JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy will fly to meet West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has intensified efforts to cobble up an Opposition front without Congress ahead of Lok Sabha elections next year.

Sources said the meeting with the former Karnataka Chief Minister assumes significance, as it comes close on the heels of Mamata's meeting with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav last week.

Mamata is also scheduled to meet Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday while she is also likely to meet Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi next week.

The meetings also come at a time the Trinamool Congress has increased its decibel levels against Congress with Mamata alleging that Rahul Gandhi has been increasing the TRP of Narendra Modi and that the Congress cannot defeat the BJP. Yadav also has made similar comments.

The JD(S) is fighting against the Congress and the BJP in Karnataka, which are all set to go to polls. While a section argues that JD(S) could align with Congress in a post-poll scenario, both the parties have been at each other's throat in recent times with the Congress calling the JD(S) a B-Team of the BJP.

Mamata is also planning to come to Delhi next week during which she is likely to hold a protest on a variety of issues, including misuse of central agencies, Adani Group issue and MGNREGA among others.

These non-Congress parties, including AAP, Trinamool, BRS, RJD, JD(U) and JMM, are also planning to approach Delhi High Court against the misuse of central agencies. Individual parties will file separate petitions but on the same lines and at present, eight parties are on board.

This initiative is led by Kejriwal, who has proposed to launch The Progressive Chief Ministers' Group of India or “G-8” as the Delhi Chief Minister called it. However, it was not launched as proposed last week.

Sources said the leaders had met online to finetune the strategy and more non-Congress parties could join the eight parties.

Sources said AAP had taken this initiative to bring together eight Chief Ministers from seven parties with a dinner and a joint press conference last week but it did not take off. Sources said an online meeting, however, took place.

In a letter, sources said, Kejriwal had written that the “G-8” would converge in Delhi for the inaugural meeting and launch to “usher in a new area of inter-state cooperation”. Kejriwal said that they could join for a dinner on March 18 to discuss the way forward and announce the launch of the forum in a joint press conference the next day.