West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee will preside over a meeting of Trinamool Working Committee on Monday to discuss the party’s national political strategies.
A party spokesperson on Friday said that 21 members of the working committee, including Abhishek Banerjee, were asked to attend the meet at Mamata’s Kalighat residence.
According to sources, Mamata and Abhishek will discuss with the party members the role of Trinamool MPs in the upcoming winter session of Parliament.
In the past few months, some important leaders from all over the country have joined the Trinamool. Former Haryana Pradesh Congress president Ashok Tanwar, who was once close to the Gandhi family, has also been invited to the working committee meeting. A Trinamool spokesperson said, “He (Ashok) will be introduced to the rest of the party leaders.”
Yashwant Sinha, the foreign and finance minister of the Atal Behari government who joined the Trinamool in March, got the membership of the working committee. Former Goa Chief Minister Lujinho Faleiro, former Assam MP Sushmita Dev, grandson and great-grandson of the late former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kamalapati Tripathi – Rajeshpati and Loliteshpati have also joined. Faleiro was given the post of All-India Vice-President of the party and a member of the Trinamool Working Committee. Mamata sent Feleiro and Sushmita to the Rajya Sabha.
Mamata met former national cricketer and former BJP MP Kirti Azad and former JD (U) MP Pawan Burma during her recent visit to Delhi. Mukul Sangma, the former chief minister of Meghalaya and leader of the opposition, joined the TMC camp on Thursday along with 11 Congress MLAs. most of whom are Congressmen or ex-Congressmen.
Standing in front of Abhishek’s official residence on South Avenue, Mamata said on Wednesday that she would travel to Mumbai to meet NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
The political camp says Mamata has raised the possibility of a new equation in the opposition alliance in the coming days. However, the Congress alleges that the Trinamool Congress leadership is trying to break the ‘new alliance’. “The aim is to weaken the Congress and give Narendra Modi the benefit of the doubt,” the source said.
According to Trinamool sources, Mamata will meet Uddhav and Pawar in Mumbai on December 1. However, the winter session of the parliament started on November 29.
Pawar was scheduled to appear in Parliament on December 1 in New Delhi. But he will not come to Delhi and will wait in Mumbai. The Trinamool leadership claims that the issue is significant.
The debate that has been raging in the political camp over the past few months is whether the idea of an anti-BJP alliance, excluding the Congress, is actually possible.
The battle for more than 120 seats in the country is directly between the Congress and the BJP. There are no footprints of any local party there. It is not that Mamata is not aware of this reality of national politics.
Trinamool’s argument, however, is different. According to sources, Mamata wants to take her anti-BJP face further in national politics by expanding party organizations in different states.
The Bengal Chief Minister can also go to Uttar Pradesh. According to the Trinamool Congress, if Mamata can establish a strong anti-BJP alliance in the states by establishing her own leadership among the regional parties, the Congress will not be able to address the question of leadership in the anti-Congress alliance before the Lok Sabha polls.