Bengal CM’s address reaches top Oppn

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s speech at the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s virtual rally on Wednesday was screened live across various states, including the national capital, as the party aimed to send its message beyond the boundaries of West Bengal.

At the Constitution Club of India, a stone’s throw from Parliament, top-ranking leaders of opposition parties, including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and former finance minister P Chidambaram, arrived to watch the live screening, people familiar with the matter said.

Trinamool Congress leaders said Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav and Jaya Bachchan, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) Tiruchi Siva, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP Keshava Rao, Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party, Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, NCP’s Supriya Sule and Balwinder Singh Bhunder of Shiromani Akali Dal were also present at the live telecast.

Banerjee returned to power for a third consecutive term in May and the party is now eyeing a bigger role in the national political theatre as the Congress lost its overarching power in the anti-BJP space, experts say.

Apart from Delhi, the Bengal chief minister’s speech was telecast live in Tripura, Assam and a few other states.