Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sprung a surprise which is difficult to digest for the BJP getting senior saffron leader and former Arunachal Chief Minister Gegong Apang to join her grand rally scheduled to be held on January 19 at the historic Brigade Parade Ground.
Not only this, a number of other BJP leaders including former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha, Arun Shourie, are also likely to join her rally apart from former NDA allies like Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
According to Trinamool Congress sources Apang a five-time Chief Minister of his State who resigned from BJP writing to its president that it was not the same party as it used to be will also join the Brigade rally that could break all previous records of attendance.
The TMC is expecting a 20-lakh-plus footfall 4-5 lakh more than the largest turnout ever in 1977 when former Chief Minister late Jyoti Basu had called a similar all-party rally.
Banerjee earlier said that leaders from “Kashmir to Kanyakumari” would join the rally to which BJP State president said “let us wait and see how many of them come.”
“On January 19 you will see a huge representation from all regions of the country. Heavy-weight national leaders, including a former Prime Minister and several ex-Chief Ministers will attend the rally,” Banerjee said while her party leaders called the effort a prelude to Banerjee’s emerging as the face of the opposition and — “albeit the prime ministerial face” — after the elections.
“You will see national leaders from Kashmir to Kanyakumari — like ex-Prime Minister HD Deve Gowdaji, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister Kumarswamiji, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalji, Samwajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Nantional Conference leader Farooq Abdullaji, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav coming to join the rally,” Basnerjee said adding Congress Lok Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge would also come in the rally.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was not coming on account of illness she said and added Left leadership had also been invited to the rally but were yet to accept the invite.
Meanwhile, after having failed to have its way for the much-hyped Rath Yatra — a plea for which was turned down by the Supreme Court after the State Government objected to it, citing law and order issues — the BJP tried to make up for its lost ground by announcing five big rallies to be addressed by party president Amit Shah beginning January 20.
Dilip Ghosh said Shah would address a grand rally at Malda on January 20. On January 21 he will address two rallies at Siuri in Birbhum and Jhargram in Jangalmahal. The next day he will again address two rallies at Krishnagar in Nadia and Joynagar in South 24 Parganas.
The BJP was also trying to organise a rally at Brigade Parade Ground on February 8, he said.