Mamata Banerjee & Sonia Gandhi meeting may change political equations in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the first after the latter’s party entering into an electoral alliance with Banerjee’s arch rival CPM in the 2016 assembly election, may just spur an uneasy alliance among these parties.

The meeting, though aimed at selecting a Presidential candidate, may lead to a change in the political equation in the state and renew the camaraderie between the Gandhis and Banerjee.

The May 16 meeting assumes significance as the cordial relationship between the two had hit a roadblock post Rahul Gandhi’s decision to ally with the CPM.

In the run up to the Presidential election, Sonia Gandhi started putting renewed efforts to forge an Opposition alliance and it appears incomplete without bringing on board Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the third largest party in Opposition.

Meanwhlile, the Bengal CM, who has long been trying to find a foothold nationally as a credible Opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, needs a national party like the Congress by her side. While Banerjee will head to Delhi on May 15 responding to Sonia Gandhi's call, there is palpable tension in the state Congress about the upcoming political equation.

Trinamool Congress leaders further highlighted the last programme of a united Opposition in which 16 parties including the Congress, CPM and the Trinamool Congress came together to register their protest to President Pranab Mukherjee against the ruling NDA.