West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and a host of other leaders in New Delhi on Monday in what is being seen as an attempt to form a federal front without the BJP or the Congress.
Banerjee, who arrived in the national capital on Monday, held talks with the powerful leader from Maharashtra at the NCP office in Parliament.
NCP leaders Praful Patel and Vandana Chavan were also present at the meeting.
This was the first of the many meetings the Trinamool Congress supremo held with political leaders to chalk out the possibility of an alliance to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Banerjee also met Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut.
It is interesting to note that the Shiv Sena, which is currently an ally of the BJP in the NDA government, had said in January this year that it would contest solo in 2019. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which is a strong force in Maharashtra, has been relentlessly attacking the Modi government.
Reports say Mamata also met DMK leader K Kanimozhi and K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
She also met Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP YS Chowdary.
But Banerjee dismissed claims that her meetings were designed to create an alliance against the Modi government.
“I sometimes visit Delhi. We have 46 MPs. I have been a Parliamentarian myself and I know many of the leaders. There is nothing new if I am meeting them,” she told reporters.
Banerjee is expected to meet Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. She will also meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Seen as the most prominent face in a possible team of non-BJP and non-Congress political parties, Banerjee has taken the lead in the formation of a federal front ever since the Telangana CM first made an announcement in this regard.
On 3 March, the Telangana CM had floated the idea of a federal front adding that he was already in talks with other “like-minded” parties to bring about “qualitative changes” in governance.