Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday extended his support to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her bid to lead the INDIA bloc, reported PTI.
On Friday, Banerjee had said in an interview to News18 Bangla that she could handle the dual responsibilities of being chief minister and leading the Opposition alliance if given a chance.
“The Congress’ opposition will not make any difference…She should be allowed to lead the INDIA bloc,” Yadav said.
The INDIA bloc, an acronym for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, is a coalition of several Opposition parties that was formed in July 2023 to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and party leader Tejashwi Yadav had said that he had “no objection to any senior leader of the INDIA bloc, including Banerjee, leading the coalition”, but asserted that such a decision must be arrived at through consensus.
The INDIA bloc won 234 seats in the Lok Sabha election this year, of which 99 were secured by the Congress.
The BJP alone secured 240 seats – down from the 303 it had won in 2019 – and lost its majority in the House. The National Democratic Alliance won 293 of the House’s 543 seats, a slimmer majority than predicted by most pollsters.
“I had formed the INDIA bloc, now it is up to those leading the front to manage it,” Banerjee had said on Friday. “If they can’t run the show, what can I do? I would just say that everyone needs to be taken along.”
She said: “If given the opportunity, I would ensure its smooth functioning. I don’t want to go outside West Bengal, but I can run it from here.”
A day later, Sharad Pawar, chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), said that Banerjee was capable of leading the coalition. “The elected leaders she sent to Parliament are responsible, dutiful and well-aware people,” he said. “Therefore, she has the right to say so.”
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut MP also said that his party wanted Banerjee to be a “major partner” of the INDIA bloc.
The coalition won the Jharkhand Assembly election last month. In October, an alliance of the National Conference and Congress, both members of the INDIA bloc, won the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.
However, the coalition has also suffered setbacks with defeats in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The alliance has also witnessed tensions on other fronts in recent days. In Maharashtra, the Samajwadi Party on Saturday announced its decision to withdraw from the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, objecting to a newspaper advertisement published by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) praising the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
On December 1, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said his outfit would not ally with any other party during the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
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