Mamata Banerjee reaches out to M K Stalin, party says unity move 'on track'

New Delhi, Mar 5: Amid a fresh unity bid by the Opposition to take on the BJP, the Trinamool Congress said its chief Mamata Banerjee had reached out to DMK working president M K Stalin for co-ordination in and outside Parliament.

Banerjee has taken a lead in defeating the BJP by talking to 'federal' parties. "We are on track", TMC Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said. After calling up TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, Banerjee held telephonic conversation with Stalin, O'Brien said, adding there was "good coordination" between TRS, TDP, SP, BSP, TMC and DMK in Parliament on various issues today. His remarks came in the backdrop of Banerjee again pitching for regional parties to come together to take on the BJP after the results of assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Responding to a question, O'Brien rejected the suggestion that the Congress has been "excluded" from the grouping Mamata Banerjee is working on. He said the West Bengal chief minister also spoke with Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray. The two leaders had been in touch with each other. Though it is part of the governments in Maharashtra and at the Centre, Sena has been critical of the BJP and its leadership.

The Lok Sabha saw frequent disruptions today following vociferous protests by opposition members over the Punjab National Bank fraud and other issues while MPs of NDA ally TDP continued to raise their demand for a special package to Andhra Pradesh. Soon after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan made obituary references, members from the Congress, TRS and other parties as well as from the TDP trooped into the Well raising various issues.

O' Brien said that during her nearly 12-minute conversation, Banerjee told Stalin that a good show by the TMC and the DMK in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively would mean a block of nearly 75 MPs in Parliament. A day after he announced his entry into national politics, Telangana Rashtra Samiti supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao had received support from various political leaders, including Banerjee.

"From morning, I have been receiving many calls from various places in India. This afternoon West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee called me and said that I have taken the right decision and she will be supporting me and that we will go forward together," Rao had said a couple of days ago.

PTI