A couple of days after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee floated the idea of a Federal Front at the Centre, a broader contour emerged for such a political potpourri on Wednesday. In addition to Trinamool Congress, the proposed front may include Janata Dal(U), BJD, and JVM of Babulal Marandi. The INlD has also shown interest in Mamata’s initiative, and some other small regional players are expected to jump the bandwagon.
Amid talk that Nitish Kumar has made up his mind to walk out of the NDA, JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi met Mamata at the Writers’ Buildings. “I have already spoken to Nitishji,” Banerjee told the media on Wednesday about her talks with the Bihar Chief Minister. She also claimed that she had also spoken to her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik.
“I also spoke to Naveen Patnaik on the issue over phone today. When we will talk again we will decide the venue of meeting,” the Trinamool Congress supremo told reporters.
“We are happy. And, you know some days ago Babulal Marandi (JVM-P chief) came from Jharkhand to talk on this. Two or three other leaders came and talked with us,” she said.
While Tyagi insisted that both the UPA and the NDA had failed to deliver the promises to the voters, Banerjee said the Chief Ministers she had spoken to feel that there was a need to raise a national alternative comprising the regional parties.
“Nitishji feels that there is a strong need for the regional parties to come together in order to form a Federal Front.” Banerjee wrote on Facebook on Monday that the regional parties should come together to fight against the misrule of the UPA.
She urged all the non-Congress, non-BJP regional parties to launch a united fight to free the country from misrule and anti-people decisions (of the UPA-II Government) and work together to build a better and brighter India.
According to Trinamool Congress sources, Banerjee was “also in touch with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa” and was trying to open a dialogue with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. There was no response yet from Yadav, a senior Trinamool leader said.
Banerjee had come out of the UPA-II alliance following differences on a host of issues like FDI in retail, lPG price deregulation and Centre’s refusal to grant three-year moratorium to her Government on payment of interest on Bengal’s accumulated debt of `2 lakh crore.