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...Congress terms it a mirage

NEW DELHI: As regional satraps Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal today gathered in Kolkata for Mamata Banerjee''s swearing-in fuelling talks of a possible federal front, the Congress rushed to trash the speculation as a “mirage”.



Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 27

As regional satraps Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal today gathered in Kolkata for Mamata Banerjee's swearing-in fuelling talks of a possible federal front, the Congress rushed to trash the speculation as a “mirage”.

“A federal front, a third front, whatever you call it, is a permanent mirage of Indian politics. It appears and disappears,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said as party chief Sonia Gandhi gave the Mamata event a miss deciding not to even nominate a representative despite the TMC chief's personal invitation.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi sufficed to tweet his wishes to Mamata who reciprocated on the same medium.

And as all this was underway, a senior Congress leader quipped about the Congress' absence at Mamata's oath-taking, saying "This is not how it should be. Mamata is one of us. She is a former Congress woman. We share the DNA.”

Even the Congress' trusted ally NCP appeared cut up with Sonia for declining the invite for the Kolkata event. NCP's Tariq Anwar said: "It would have been good had Sonia Gandhi gone for the swearing-in of Mamata Banerjee as Bengal CM. The TMC was with us in the UPA. We are all like-minded parties." 

Anwar had recently urged Sonia to take the initiative of bringing the erstwhile UPA partners back together. Even senior Congress leaders such as Digvijay Singh also batted for the larger unity of Congress forces in which he vaguely counted NCP chief Sharad Pawar, TMC chief Mamata and YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, all former Congress leaders.

Asked why the Congress bunked Mamata's big day today, a leader said perhaps because it is now the principal Opposition in West Bengal. Another party leader, however, said: “What did Mamata Banerjee say on her victory day? She said Rahul Gandhi was the USP of PM Narendra Modi. She did not impress any Congress leader, did she?”

A third section in the Congress, however, believes that Mamata has her reasons to be miffed with the Congress for clearing the controversial Left-Congress pre-poll understanding in the recent Bengal elections. 

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