Our First Aim Is To Oust BJP: Mamata

Collective leadership for 2019 polls.

- Sobhana K. Nair

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told the media here on Wednesday that the Opposition would fight the 2019 Lok Sabha election under a collective leadership,  and  the first aim was to oust the BJP government.

The statement came after she held daylong parleys with leaders of 10 Opposition parties here. 

Ms. Banerjee met all leaders expected to play a key role in the Lok Sabha election: Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi  Party leader Ramgopal Yadav, JD(S) leader Deve Gowda and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

To a question at a media interaction after she met the Gandhis — whether she considered herself to be the face of the Opposition coalition in 2019 — she said: “There is a song  by Rabindranath Tagore that in a democracy Amra saboi raja [All of us are kings]. All of us are together, we are all for all.” The question was posed to her repeatedly through the day.

Answering it earlier in the day, she said, “Please don’t discuss all these things. The Prime Minister does not matter to us. I want my country to progress. I want farmers and  labourers to have a good life. I want communal harmony... Pehle BJP ko haraane dijiye, phir baith kar dekhenge (Let’s first defeat the BJP, then we will sit and discuss).”