The Trinamool Congress leadership has not denied reports that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has plans to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab in the next year’s Assembly elections.
Banerjee, who had made clear her national ambitions after returning to power in Bengal for the second time with thumping majority, is known to have expressed her desire to go national: by addressing a mammoth rally in Tripura to begin with and then moving over to Punjab for Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP.
“Aap Bulayenge to hum jayenge (If AAP calls us we will go)” said a senior Trinamool Congress leader but added quickly “everything depends upon our Chief Minister’s other preoccupations and the situation at that point in time.”
Banerjee, who is known for her close chemistry with Kejriwal, is likely to meet her Delhi counterpart in Italy where both the leaders have been invited to attend Mother Teresa’s beatification ceremony.
On why she is planning to campaign in Punjab where BJP and theCongress are two major contenders-and both were her allies at certain point of time-a top Trinamool leader said “things have been made clear by her in the recent party rally on July 21” when she spoke about a “non-BJP, non-Congress secular front comprising regional parties.”
Bengal CM is also known to have said that there are a lot of things common things between Bengal and Punjab. She also claimed to comprehend the Punjabi sentiments better than many others because “there are many Punjabis in Bengal.”
On whether her Punjab plans are part of her national ambitions the TMC leader said “it is within the right of every political party to extend its base and Trinamool is a political party with a national appeal.”
Be things what they may, sources in the Trinamool Congress said Banerjee is fed up of being “intimidated by the BJP Government” much on account of the ongoing CBI investigations into the multi-crore Sharada chit fund scam.
It is in the interest of the TMC to prop a Front in the Centre which is dependent on her so that Trinamool can free its neck from the clutches of the BJP Government, say experts.
Bolstering her party’s ties with AAP or for that matter JDU and others is a part of that strategy, sources say. In fact Banerjee has plans to hold a series of tea parties in Delhi this winter from where her real plans of what she calls a Federal Front will emerge, party sources inform.
Meanwhile, sources in the Trinamool Congress said the Chief Minister will address a huge rally in Tripura where Banerjee will be the star speaker and from where she will give a call to oust the left Front Government.
“After more than half of the Congress MlAs joining us we are the principal opposition party in Tripura. From here we will launch the campaign to defeat the CPI(M),” TMC leader Partho Chatterjee said.