TMC leader Mamata Banerjee (right) held a closed-door meeting with senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi (left) as TMC undergoes a major internal crisis. Photo: PTI
Mamata Banerjee meets Sonia Gandhi a day after INDIA bloc talks as TMC crisis deepens
Sources said the leaders discussed opposition strategy and the evolving political situation in West Bengal
A day after an opposition INDIA bloc meeting stressed unity and better coordination among the alliance partners, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (June 9) met senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at her residence.
Sources revealed that the two leaders are believed to have discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward after the opposition bloc meeting, and following a mass exodus of TMC members after the party's defeat to the BJP in the recent Bengal polls.
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The meeting followed after Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, and Mamata met each other warmly with a hug at the opposition bloc's meeting in New Delhi on Monday (June 8). The Congress shared pictures of the friendship between the two leaders.
The meeting comes in the wake of a rebellion within the Trinamool Congress, with several party MPs deciding to form a separate group and align themselves with the ruling NDA. A majority of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs have already formed a separate group led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the state Assembly.
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This was the first closed-door meeting between Banerjee and Gandhi after TMC's defeat in the polls, and alleged attacks on party workers and MP Abhishek Banerjee after the elections.
(With agency inputs)