Mamata steps up efforts for Third front, to hold key meetings with Sonia, Pawar in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Efforts to stitch a Third-front appeared to be gaining momentum as West Bengal Chief Minister will be on a four-day visit to the national capital to meet the leaders of various parties ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. During her visit, Mamata is also likely to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar and other important players. She is expected to attend a joint opposition meet being hosted by Sharad Pawar on March 28. The Trinamool Congress chief has stepped up efforts to form a formidable non-BJP front of opposition parties. She had last week met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and it was said the meeting had initiated the process of forming a ‘federal front’ for the 2019 polls. Mamata conveyed to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief that she is with him in bringing like-minded parties together. KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, had pitched for a non-BJP and non-Congress platform but Mamata remained non-committal about leaving the Congress out. She has increased engagements with regional leaders including Lalu Prasad, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Arvind Kejriwal and MK Stalin. Mamata also wants to rope in Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, whose TDP has recently walked out of the NDA. The call for putting up a common front by the opposition in the 2019 elections came after BJP's defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha polls, in which the SP-BSP alliance overpowered the saffron party in the constituencies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. Earlier in the month, Sonia Gandhi had hosted a dinner for opposition parties where possibilities of putting up a united front to defeat the BJP in the next general elections were discussed. Later, Congress president Rahul Gandhi met NCP chief Sharad Pawar to discuss the same. Sonia had earlier called for opposition unity, saying parties should set aside their minor differences to get together in the larger interest of keeping the BJP out of power.