Mamata Banerjee on Friday asked political parties in the Opposition across the country to join hands and field a common candidate in each Lok Sabha seat against the BJP in the 2024 general elections.
Her message, in the backdrop of her multiple parleys with leaders of several non-BJP parties in recent months, captured her attempt to build consensus to take on the BJP next year.
“We have to unite and fight together. Candidates should be fielded on a 1:1 basis. Whoever (political party) is strong in a place will field candidates in that respective area. This is necessary to oust BJP from power,” she said at a public meeting in Murshidabad.
Mamata is firmly in favour of the 1:1 formula, which translates to only the strongest non-BJP candidate being fielded against the BJP candidate in as many of the 543 Lok Sabha seats as possible.
The Trinamul chief has been pitching the formula for a while, questioning the BJP’s very ability to win next year and dismissing the meticulously crafted perception of the invincibility of the Narendra Modi regime.
She also cited the example of 11 states, accounting for 271 parliamentary seats, where, according to her, the BJP is not likely to fare well in the 2024 elections.
These observations come a day after Mamata, in Malda on Thursday, asserted that she would be happy to see BJP’s downfall starting from Karnataka, where Assembly elections are scheduled be held on May 10.
Since mid-March, Mamata has been meeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, JDU chief Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, besides having telephonic discussions with DMK chief M.K. Stalin, JMM leader Hemant Soren and BRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Till recently, she was, however, maintaining equidistance from the BJP and the Congress and was critical of Rahul Gandhi. In March, during a telephonic conversation with her party leaders of Murshidabad, she had said: “Rahul is BJP’s best TRP”.
But after Rahul was disqualified as an MP, her stance seems to have softened somewhat.
On Friday, Mamata accused the BJP of trying to polarise the country.
“A person who becomes a leader in this country should take an inclusive approach to work for each resident. But these people are orchestrating riots and violence and have no intention to carry out peoples’ development,” she told the gathering in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district on Friday, but without naming anyone.
“They are planning to win the 2024 elections by using central agencies. Central agencies are used against people who speak against the BJP.... Such strategies will not work,” added Mamata.
Her plan made other political parties react.
Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, MP and the state Congress chief, said Mamata had to “regain credibility.”
“Trinamul went to states like Goa, Meghalaya and Tripura and worked against Congress. Trinamul didn’t vote for the candidate Congress fielded for the vice-presidential polls,” he said, asking how they could bank on her.
“Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, parties in the Opposition make such empty calls. Eventually, nothing happens. There are huge differences among them,” said BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
