Regional parties will call the shots in 2014: Trinamool

Ridicules CPI(M)’s attempts to forge a front based on alternative policies

The Trinamool Congress said here on Wednesday that regional parties would dictate the formation of the government at the Centre after the next general elections.

“The regional parties will emerge the strongest and dictate the formation of the next government at the Centre in 2014. Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] nor the Congress will get a majority in the election,” Leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay told journalists.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last month given a call for the formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP, “federal front” before the next general elections.

Mr. Bandyopadhyay also ridiculed the attempts of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to forge a front based on alternative policies.

“Their politics is so bankrupt that they even do not know that the person with whom they are discussing an alternative front is not even a party member,” he said, referring to a meeting between a self-proclaimed leader of the Samajwadi Party and the CPI(M) leadership earlier this week.

The Samajwadi Party had said that the person — Sanjay Dalmia — who met CPI(M) leadership was not sent by party president Mulayam Singh and he was not even a member of the party.

The Trinamool Congress leader also announced the postponement of the Martyrs Day rally organised by the party annually on July 21 to commemorate the deaths in police firing of 13 people during a Youth Congress procession in 1993.

The rally will be organised on August 21 as the model code of conduct for the upcoming rural polls will be in place till July 25, Mr. Bandyopadhyay said.