'NDA, BJP, can you challenge I-N-D-I-A.?' Mamata Banerjee after Opposition meet
Kolkata/IBNS: As top Opposition leaders agreed to form I-N-D-I-A ((Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) to take on the mighty Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the general elections scheduled next year, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is one of the key faces of the newly formed front, challenged the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after the strategic meeting ended.
At a press conference following the strategic meeting, Banerjee said: "NDA, BJP, can you challenge I.N.D.I.A.?"
"We love our motherland. We are the patriotic people of the country. We are for the country, the world, farmers, for all," she said, adding that people -- Hindus, Dalits, minorities, farmers, in Bengal, and Manipur -- are under threat from the BJP, whose only job is "buying and selling governments".
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the next Oppositions' meeting will be held in Mumbai, where an 11-member coordination committee will be set up.
When asked who will lead the alliance, Kharge said that a Convenor will be decided at the Mumbai meting. "These are small things," he said.
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Speaking during the media interaction, Rahul Gandhi said: "The country's wealth is going to a select few. The fight is about two different ideas of India. We asked ourselves who the fight is between. Not between the Opposition and BJP. The voice of the country is being stifled. The fight is for the voice of the country. So this name was chosen - INDIA."
During the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said his party wasn't interested in power or the Prime Minister post. Taking aim at the BJP, he said the ruling party's president and party leaders are "running from state to state" to patch up with old allies. "We are 26 parties, in government in 11 states; BJP didn't get 303 seats by itself, used votes of allies then discarded them," he said at the meeting.
The dinner meeting at the Taj West End Hotel last evening saw Mamata Banerjee and Sonia Gandhi seated next to each other.
They had a one-on-one conversation earlier that lasted almost 20 minutes, delaying the beginning of the meeting, media reports said.