BSP's Satish Mishra to attend Mamata's 'United India' rally
Kolkata, Jan 17 (IBNS): Giving a boost to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has decided to send a representative to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's mega rally scheduled to be held on Saturday.
BSP supremo Mayawati will send her party's senior leader Satish Chandra Mishra to the rally, which has been termed by Mamata as "United India rally".
The TMC chief, who went to the rally's venue Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Thursday, said various Chief Ministers as well as former Prime Minister HD Deve Howda will come.
Congress' top brass Sonia and Rahul Gandhi may be skipping the rally but they are sending their party leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday.
Others like Telegu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, DMK's MK Stalin, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy are likely to attend the meeting.
Speaking about the rally, which will perhaps not witness any of the Left parties, Mamata said: "I think all the leaders are coming. It is a platform to fight the 2019 battle against BJP. Every political party will give their message. Earlier in 1989, when Jyoti Basu was alive, he organised a rally that time. But the rally was not that big. Before that, Jay Prakash Narayan held one. But this one will also be historic and a mega rally."
Remembering the rally in 1993 when she rang the "knell" of then CPI-M government in the state, the West Bengal Chief Minister said: "As the Youth Congress president, I held a similar programme in 1993 against the Left Front government. But I won't say anything this time, let all the leaders decide. I am waiting for others to speak. I will listen to others and won't impose my opinion on them because it is a democratic system."
Responding to a question about the BJP's dig at the United Opposition, Mamata said: "Don't worry. Every political party has individual vision, philosophy and compulsion. I don't think there will be a problem. It will be the unity of people."
Current picture of United Opposition:
The TMC's rally will be held exactly a week after arch rivals- Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)- joined hands in Uttar Pradesh to stop the Narendra Modi juggernaut. However, the SP and BSP left out Congress accusing it of not transferring votes to its allies in polls.
Talks are also going on between the Congress and NCP to fight in equal number of seats in Maharashtra. In Uttar Pradesh, the SP and BSP will contest in 38 seats each, leaving Amethi and Rae Bareli seats, which are the Congress' strongholds.
In Bihar, the RJD is going to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with the Congress and other smaller parties, in a direct contest with the Janata Dal (United)-BJP alliance.
Images: AITC Facebook
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