Mamata meets Sonia amid rebellion in TMC

A day after an opposition INDIA bloc meeting stressed unity and better coordination among the alliance partners, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence.

Sources said the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward after the opposition bloc meeting, and following an exodus of Trinamool members after the party’s defeat to the BJP in the recent Bengal polls.

The meeting followed after Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, and Banerjee met each other warmly with a hug at the opposition bloc’s meeting here on Monday. The Congress shared pictures of the bonhomie between the two leaders. The meeting comes in the wake of a rebellion within the Trinamool, with several party MPs deciding to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA.

A majority of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs have already formed a separate group led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the State Assembly.

This was the first closed-door meeting between Banerjee and Gandhi after Trinamool’s defeat in the polls, and alleged attacks on party workers and MP Abhishek Banerjee after the elections.