Mamata Banerjee on Monday flew off to Delhi to join cause with the Congress and “further bolster the anti-demonetisation movement” amid speculation of loosening adhesive in the Opposition unity — in the wake left declining to join Tuesday’s meeting citing lack of prior consultation.
“I can’t tell you now. let me reach Delhi and see how things pan out. We will have discussions there and then things will be clear,” Banerjee told journalists in Kolkata when asked to speak on the agenda of talks.
Apart from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, she was likely to meet her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Trinamool sources said.
like the Bengal Chief Minister the left Front which declined to join the Tuesday talks also seemed to be in the dark on the agenda of the meeting and said such all-party meetings should take place after prior consultations at appropriate levels.
While experts said the reason why BSP would skip the Delhi round — in a situation of Samajwadi Party joining it — is no different from why the left’s doing so in presence of Trinamool Congress in the meeting.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the left had decided not to join the talks as “there was no prior consultation among the parties before the talks.” Though he said, “there was full coordination in Parliament among the opposition parties, you must have prior consultations at appropriate levels if you have to elevate it to the party level.”
Many opposition parties would not be joining the talks as they were not consulted on date he said adding the Congress should know that in a combined effort, prior understanding and consultations were a must.
Yechury, however, said the left Front would launch a nationwide stir against demonetisation after December 30 when the 50-day time limit set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for things to revert to normalcy ended.
Alleging that demonetisation was a complete diversion from the promises made to the people by the Modi Government, Yechury called upon “all the right-thinking parties to join the movement against the Central Government’s anti-people, anti-poor move that has impoverished the whole nation, the poor and the middle-class to be specific.”
He alleged that the people were suffering as no new investments were taking place post-demonetisation, adding “everyone is suffering and lines at ATMs are growing longer by the day.”
He said in Kerala “a human chain would be formed to mark the protest against demonetisation. The left will stage a protest when the Prime Minister’s new announcements are launched,” adding “consultations will be held with all the parties to widen the scope of the movement.”