Maharashtra elections: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee may campaign for INDIA bloc allies

NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will be campaigning for her INDIA bloc allies for the Maharashtra elections, coming later this year, it is learnt.
Even while the election dates have not been announced, tentative dates for Banerjee to campaign for the opposition MVA alliance of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Congress, in the state, has been discussed between the two sides on Wednesday when TMC MP Derek O’Brien met with Thackaray, who was in Delhi.
Banerjee herself had held meetings with Pawar and Thackaray when she was in Mumbai last month to attend the wedding ceremony of Mukesh Ambani’s son. Before that Banerjee’s nephew, emissary and TMC MP and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had also met with Thackaray in Mumbai. On Wednesday, Thackaray’s son Aditya and party MP Sanjay Raut were also present at the meeting with the TMC leader.
Banerjee has been in closely coordinating with the Sena chief among other INDIA party leaders for some time now. Though it is not often that Banerjee goes for poll campaigns in other states to support friendly parties, it seems she is a keen participant in the INDIA alliance and has decided to lend campaign support to her allies. While she has had issues with Congress on some occasions, the TMC chief has maintained very cordial terms with the regional party leaders like SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal among others.
For the first time, Akhilesh Yadav was invited for the big ticket annual TMC rally in Kolkata last month, where he addressed the crowds alongside Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee.