Ending the speculation whether Rahul or Sonia Gandhi will participate in the public meeting hosted by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, the Congress has decided to send its envoys to attend the rally to be held on Saturday at the Brigade Parade Ground. At least 18 top leaders — including three Chief Ministers — will attend what is being described by Ms. Banerjee as United India Rally. It will be “an historic” event, Ms Banerjee said. In an informal chat with journalists at the venue on Thursday evening, Ms. Banerjee said that senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge will attend the rally. Another leader, Abhisekh Manu Singhvi, will also be present. However, Ms. Banerjee remained tightlipped about the future of the Federal Front that she had proposed earlier and said it would be “important to listen to the other leaders” who will be attending. She called it a “platform to fight against the BJP in the battle of 2019” and unveiled the list of participants.
Those expected to attend include three Chief Ministers, H.D. Kumaraswamy of Karnataka, N. Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi. “It is rare to have so many leaders together. We should listen to what they have to say,” Ms. Banerjee said.
“Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawarji, Deve Gowdaji, and (M.K.) Stalin will come tomorrow. Arvind (Kejriwal) and Tejashwi (Yadav) will arrive the day after,” Ms. Banerjee. The list is long. It also includes a host of former Chief Ministers, including Farooq and Omar Abdullah of Jammu and Kashmir, Babulal Marandi and Hemant Soren of Jharkhand and Lal Thanhawla of Mizoram. Gegong Apang, who has just quit BJP in Arunachal Pradesh, will also address the rally, Ms. Banerjee confirmed.
Veterans like Sharad Yadav and Satish Mishra will also be on stage with the other leaders.
“We are expecting people from Assam as well,” she said.
It remains unclear whether Ms. Banerjee is slowly shifting from her earlier position to form a robust anti-Congress, anti-BJP platform, the Federal Front. Congress leaders in the State earlier told The Hindu that such a front was thought of to split the anti-BJP vote in order to weaken the Congress.
When asked about the Federal Front on Thursday, Ms. Banerjee said, “The regional parties will be the deciding factor,” thus indicating that she was not pushing for a combine that was anti-Congress as well.
“It is a grand alliance of the people, and political parties will be with the people. I will not impose my views on them and rather listen to them,” Ms. Banerjee reiterated.
While she did not predict the number of seats that Congress or any other party may win, Ms Banerjee underlined that “BJP will get less than 125 seats” Even 125 “is enough” as “obviously” the number leaders in Saturday’s rally can garner more seats for their respective parties, she noted. Earlier Ms Banerjee said that she invited Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who did not “respond” to her invite.
Comparing the mega rally of 1977 and 1989, led by Jayaprakash Narayan and Jyoti Basu [in 1977] and Basu and Atal Bihari Vajpayee [in 1989], Ms Banerjee said that “this time too the Brigade Parade rally will be historic.”
