A rally is being planned in mid-January in Kolkata where Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee would start LS poll campaign.
Buoyed by the results of the Karnataka by-elections, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu has intensified his efforts to mobilise the Opposition parties of the southern states for a rally of a national level non-BJP front, to be held in Kolkata in January, ahead of the general elections to the Lok Sabha.
Naidu is currently on a mission to unify all non-NDA parties at the national level under the aegis of the Congress. A rally is being planned in the middle of January in Kolkata where TMC supremo and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee would kick-start the Lok Sabha election campaign, according to sources in the TDP.
Naidu is contemplating to hold another rally in Delhi, if possible by the end of December, as a curtain-raiser to the Kolkata rally, sources said. NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Congress president Rahul Gandhi had agreed to attend a rally in Delhi.
Naidu on Friday met DMK president M.K. Stalin and other party leaders in Chennai and held discussions with them on the modalities for raising a non-BJP front at the national level. DMK MP Kanimozhi and other leaders were present. Naidu was accompanied by his ministers Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, N. Anand Babu, MPs K. Ravindra Kumar, C.M. Ramesh and AP representative in Delhi K. Rammohan Rao.
Naidu briefed Stalin about his talks with JDS leaders H.D. Deve Gowda (former Prime Minister) and Kumaraswamy (Karnataka CM) on Thursday. Naidu also explained DMK leaders of his decision to go with Congress in the Telangana Assembly elections and to join Congress-led Opposition parties at the national level. Naidu and Stalin have agreed to fight the BJP government in the next elections.
According to the TDP leaders who were on the trip, Naidu and Stalin have resolved to ensure that the BJP is not returned to power after the next elections and a non-BJP government is installed in Delhi with the support of Congress. Stalin, too, felt that the BJP was running a remote control on the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu, since the death of Jayalalithaa.
Both Naidu and Stalin told media persons after their meeting that their opposition to the BJP government was primarily based on the apparent misuse of constitutional institutions like the CBI, Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate and Reserve Bank of India to target political opponents. Stalin had said that the issue of leadership of this proposed front would be decided later by all parties.
According to sources, Stalin told Naidu that DMK was in a better position to fight the LS elections next summer and felt that the EC might hold byelections to the Assembly seats vacated by T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s faction along with those of the LS. As the threat of rebellion from former Union minister and late Karunanidhi’s son Alagiri had subsided, DMK would win a majority seats, said sources.
Naidu on Thursday went to Bengaluru and held discussions with JDS leaders Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy on the same issue. Naidu took along with him a delegation of TDP leaders from Telangana to Bangalore. Naidu congratulated Gowda and Kumaraswamy on the JDS-Congress combine’s victory in the Karnataka by-elections, results of which were declared a day before.
Interestingly, Naidu claimed credit for the Congress wresting the Bellary Lok Sabha seat from BJP by a huge margin in the bypolls. Naidu told the JDS leaders that his party’s decision to fight against the BJP at the Centre had to do with the defeat of the party in Bellary, which was a bastion of the Reddy brothers till recently. Naidu told the JDS leaders that the falling graph of BJP in Karnataka would continue in Lok Sabha elections too.
According to TDP leaders who were present in Bangalore, Naidu told Gowda and Kumaraswamy that they should strive to re-create a political situation like in 1996-97 when Gowda became the PM under the United Front. This way, Naidu indirectly suggested that former PM should be ready to take up the job once again, if necessary.
Naidu invited Kumaraswamy to campaign for the Congress-led Maha Kutami, of which TDP, too, was a constituent in Telangana for the 7 December Assembly elections. Kumaraswamy is expected to address a few meetings in Hyderabad and other adjoining areas where Kannada speaking people are there in large numbers. Gowda and Kumaraswamy had agreed to be present at the Opposition rally in Kolkata.