New Delhi: Emphasising the need to bolster the opposition against the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the strongest regional parties should be extended all help.
"We should all help the strongest regional parties so that there is a one-to-one contest against the BJP everywhere," said Mamata.
Mamata is visiting Delhi and met leaders from the BJP ally Shiv Sena as well as MPs from several opposition parties in the national capital.
"When political people meet then of course they will discuss politics, there is nothing to hide in that. The Lok Sabha election of 2019 will certainly be very interesting," said Mamata.
Banerjee visited Parliament on Tuesday where she met Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar. She also met Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
She said she will also be meeting senior BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and others.
Mamata said she is open to talks with everybody, but reserved a special message for the BJP.
"I maintain contacts with everybody, including Hardik Patel. I do not want to alienate anybody, there is no party in the country that is more communal than BJP," said Mamata.
Mamata urged SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati to call a joint meeting of opposition parties in Lucknow and assured them that she will come.
By showing remarkable flexibility in stitching an alliance with Mayawati and capitalising it with huge upsets in Gorakhpur and Phoolpur bypolls, the oppositon has been electrified. Even though the defeat of BSP candidate in Rajya Sabha polls was a dampener, the bonhomie between the two parties is stronger than ever.
Banerjee is seen as a key player in a possible grouping of non-BJP political parties ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.
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