updated: Jul 30 2021, 12:06 ist
Resurgent after her re-election, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is on a short reconnaissance to explore Opposition unity for the 2024 general election. If the regional parties start working together now, she says, no one can stop a "political toofan (storm)" when the time comes.
Her election strategist Prashant Kishor may have planted the seed of ambition in her mind to lead the Opposition to victory. However, she claims ignorance about who would lead the Opposition saying she was no "political astrologer".
By meeting Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, leaders of the only national, even if somewhat ramshackle, party, Banerjee is testing the waters. Leaders of regional parties like Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party and Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, and YS Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh also seem convinced that an effective Opposition-formation must include the Congress.