Mamta invites BJP to join 'save Bengal front'
Trinamul Congress leader and member of Parliament Mamta Banerjee
has invited the Bharatiya Janata Party to join in the 'Bangla
Bachao Front' to defeat the ruling Left Front in West Bengal.
The BJP, which had a seat adjustment with the newly formed
party, welcomed the move in view of the three-tier panchayat
polls scheduled for May and thereafter the next assembly polls
expected not earlier than 2001, in the state.
This was the first time when Banerjee openly proposed the BJP
for such an alliance, giving a clear indication that the present
relationship between the two parties was going to stay. The BJP's state
general secretary Rahul Sinha thanked Banerjee for the proposal,
adding, "We too are keen to join the front to fight
against both the CPI-M and Congress."
The Trinamul leader, before returning to New Delhi from Calcutta, said on Sunday
evening that her party would contest all the seats -- nearly 58,000
-- in the three-tier panchayat bodies elections along with the BJP.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal unit of the Indian Union Muslim League
today announced its decision to join the 'Bangla Bachao Front' formed
by Banerjee in December.
Announcing its decision, general secretary of the party's West
Bengal state committee, M Nuruzzaman, said the IUML took this decision at Sunday's
working committee meeting in Calcutta
and conveyed it to Trinamul Congress chairman Pankaj Banerjee, MLA.
He said they would meet Mamta Banerjee when she
returned to Calcutta later this week from the national capital.
UNI
Elections '98
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