TMC, Uddhav Sena explore options, ask Akhilesh to reach out to Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar

The INDIA bloc may have decided to wait and watch developments unfolding in the NDA camp and “take appropriate steps at the appropriate time”, but some parties in the Opposition alliance, particularly the TMC and Shiv Sena (UBT), and, to some extent the AAP, are pushing hard for exploring options to shore up the bloc numbers to checkmate the BJP.

Sources said West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee spoke to SP’s Akhilesh Yadav on the day of the elections results itself, asking him to reach out to both N Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP, his late father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s comrade-in-arms since the United Front days of the mid 1990s, and JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar who too had a good equation with the SP veteran.

On Thursday, Banerjee’s nephew and TMC senior leader Abhishek Banerjee and party colleague Derek O’Brien, met Yadav in New Delhi as a follow-up meeting.

Sources said the AAP too is of the view that options to bring more parties into the INDIA bloc should be explored. AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha also met Banerjee. Separately, the two AAP leaders went to Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s residence.

Banerjee and O’Brien then left for Mumbai where they are expected to meet Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya.

After meeting the TMC leaders, Yadav said expectations in democracy should always thrive. “Khush karne se sarkarein ban rahi hai. Toh khush koi aur bi kar sakta hai (governments are being formed by pleasing people, so others can also please). In democracy… when counting is done… hope and expectations should never be over. Hope and expectations should always be there,” he said.

Sources in the SP, however, said Yadav does not expect Naidu or Kumar to change sides too soon but