Mamata Banerjee undecided on campaign for AAP

Trinamul Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has not decided yet whether to campaign for the AAP in the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls and address meetings in Uttar Pradesh going to the polls early next year.

Ms Banerjee, who has decided to work for a proposed non-BJP, non-Congress front by playing a backroom role, does not want to be seen as a prime ministerial aspirant. The process of formation of such a front could begin either late 2017 or in 2018 after elections in Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.

Her party’s victory in the West Bengal Assembly polls has not only silenced the BJP and Congress but surprised her political opponents who attacked her government on corruption and governance issues.

She is staying away from the speculation on who could be a “leader” of the anti-BJP front in 2019 after realising that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and BSP chief Mayawati are aspirants for the post.

While interacting informally with a group of reporters here on Tuesday, Ms Banerjee made it clear that she has no grudge against the JD(U) for fielding candidates against the TMC in the West Bengal polls.

The Congress party, which led the UPA for ten years and thus checked the BJP from coming to power at the Centre, needs to restore its credibility, she felt.

The TMC cannot become a part of the proposed federal front so long as the JD(U) and the AAP ally with the Left. Therefore, the AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal and TRS could be its natural allies.

All these parties are in power in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Telengana. Though no regional party, barring the AAP, want to confront the Centre, they cannot afford to be friendly with the BJP as the latter’s prime objective is to make inroads in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Telangana, besides West Bengal.