Opposition leaders on Wednesday remotely participated in the Martyrs’ Day observed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and listened to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s speech here in Delhi at a special function organised by the party.
The leaders who dropped by at the Constitution Club, where screens were put up relaying Ms. Banerjee’s speech, included senior Congress leaders P. Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, RJD’s Manoj K Jha, Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Yadav, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, TRS’s Keshava Rao, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and Akali Dal’s Balwinder Singh Bhunder. The significant absentees were the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Biju Janata Dal.
TMC’s role
TMC leaders claimed that the “enthusiastic” participation of Opposition parties showed the growing acceptance of the TMC as a possible fulcrum of Opposition unity.
The event also acted as a curtain-raiser to Ms. Banerjee’s coming visit to the Capital on Monday. She is expected to meet all the senior Opposition leaders. She will also be paying a visit to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Martyrs’ Day is one of the key events in the TMC calendar. It is observed to commemorate the 13 West Bengal Youth Congress workers who were killed in the police firing during a demonstration led by Ms. Banerjee in 1993 while she was still in the Congress.
