Exclusive: “Ceasefire…”, Know Why Yogendra Yadav Came And Met Mamata Banerjee In Middle Of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra

Political activist Yogendra Yadav, who has been accompanying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, took a break from the rally for a day and dropped by to meet Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on February 3. The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY) had left Bengal a day before on February 2 after its second leg in the state. While the Yatra entered into Dhanbad for the Jharkhand leg, Yogendra Yadav came to Kolkata and shared the stage with the Chief Minister who was on a two protest demonstration against the Central government over stalling of central funds including MNREGA payments for over two years. On the second day of the protest, Yogendra joined Mamata Banerjee, sat next to her and even supported her cause while calling non-payment of funds a “cruel & inhuman joke to the poor and vulnerable by the Modi government”.

Interestingly, Yogendra Yadav’s visit to Kolkata was unplanned, claimed sources and was decided after Mamata Banerjee on February 2, i.e a day before, from the protest site had lashed out at Congress and had cast aspersions on Congress’ ability to get even 40 seats out of 300 contested in the upcoming Loksabha elections. “I wasn’t invited to the Yatra, no one informed me. They didn’t even show the basic courtesy to let me know when their Yatra is happening in my state and if we are part of the INDIA alliance. Congress is that arrogant, I had offered two seats but they wanted more. I have rejected their proposal and that is it”, Mamata Banerjee had said on February 2, claiming that Congress along with the Left were trying to “tickle the Muslim vote bank, parallel to BJP trying to tickle the Hindus” in Bengal. Her comments had gone viral in no time, bringing further embarrassment to the grand old party.

While Yogendra Yadav shared the ‘dharna’ stage with Mamata Banerjee, sources say there happened a meeting between the two, backstage before he was brought onto the stage. Right behind the stage, there was a small makeshift meeting room made for the convenience of the Chief Minister, in case she needed to hold any official meeting or for privacy. Sources the meeting between Banerjee and Yadav inside that meeting room lasted for over 30 minutes. Yogendra Yadav had approached Mamata Banerjee, on behalf of Congress, urging her to reconsider the alliance and stop her attacks on Congress, claimed sources close to Yadav and privy to the development. “Let there be ceasefire now and let Congress get back to you at the earliest. If such attacks continue, they will be in a difficult spot and that won’t augur well for the party or INDIA bloc”, Yadav had reportedly told the TMC supremo, according to a senior leader who is not willing to be identified.

Without mincing her words, in sharp attacks Mamata Banerjee had hit out at Congress on January 24, then on January 30 and 31, raising questions if INDIA alliance was getting disintegrated. This in the backdrop of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dumping ‘mahagatbandhan’ and going back into the folds of NDA, “made things further difficult for Rahul Gandhi who is in the middle of BJNY and had to regularly meet people and the press”, claimed a congress leader.

“In case we lose Bengal and Mamata Banerjee then what else would be left in the INDIA alliance? Every day Rahul Gandhi is meeting the press and the press are asking nothing but about this leader leaving and that leader dumping Congress. That is also taking away the attention from the Yatra to something completely else. Yogendra Yadav has requested Mamata Banerjee to reconsider and reconcile. There could be mistakes on our side or maybe not, but we can not lose TMC. And if Mamata Banerjee doesn’t stop those attacks, how can we find a way to reach out to her? Thus we wanted ceasefire and that’s essentially what Yogendra has requested Didi for”, said a senior Congress member of parliament who is also disappointed with jibes of their Bengal president Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, ones he had used against TMC and Banerjee.

News The Truth has verified from people who were in attendance at Mamata Banerjee’s protest site in Kolkata, who confirmed about the one-to-one meeting that happened between Banerjee and Yadav. Sources close to Banerjee claim that “while she has been non-committal to Congress’ outreach but she had expressed her deep disappointment over Adhir Choudhury’s anti-TMC comments and also about Congress aligning with the Left”. Yadav, apparently has sought some time and assured the senior Congress leadership to get back to her at the earliest.

Interestingly, February 2 was the last when Mamata Banerjee had publicly slammed the Congress. Since then neither from the ‘dharna manch’ on February 3 nor in the following days had she uttered anything against the congress. Mamata Banerjee since February 2 has held one press conference on February 8 and two public meetings- one on February 7 and another on February 11 and on none of the occasions had she said anything against Congress, indicative of a ‘ceasefire’.

While Yogendra Yadav was still on the stage and Mamata Banerjee was giving her speech on February 3, there came a time when she looked at him and in very limited words but in a fiery manner said “I don’t have any problem…there is no problem from my side. But I will go all out and play the game….’khela hobe’ and I will win”. She had also added that like her let all regional parties, frontal organisations and national parties should come in strength to win against BJP. Congress hasn’t officially confirmed if they think that message from Banerjee was for them via “their emissary Yogendra Yadav”.​