Mamata Banerjee in Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has arrive in the national capital on Tuesday night to take part in the mega opposition rally at Jantar Mantar today. She will be visiting Parliament on Wednesday and participate at an official event in the city, sources said. Banerjee will address the AAP's 'Tanashahi Hatao, Desh Bachao' (Remove Dictatorship, Save Country) rally at Jantar Mantar. The rally is being organised by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its chief, Amit Shah.


Later in the day, she will visit Trinamool Congress' office at Parliament where she is expected to meet party lawmakers and MPs from other parties, the sources said. Banerjee will also participate at an official event in the city, details of which were yet to be shared. She is likely to be in Delhi till Thursday, according to a party leader in Kolkata.



Banerjee has emerged as one of the most formidable voices of the opposition and her visit to Delhi assumes significance after the protest she led in Kolkata over CBI's attempt to interrogate the city police chief in chit fund scam cases created a political storm. She has been at loggerheads with the ruling BJP, which is eyeing to garner at least 22 of 42 seats from Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Last month, Banerjee organised a rally of opposition parties in Kolkata, where she called to oust the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, claiming its "expiry date" has passed.



Besides Banerjee, AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai told PTI that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar would also attend the rally. Leaders from the Samajwadi Party (SP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and other parties would address the mega rally, he said.

Sources said with months to go for the general election, the rally would serve to bring the opposition leaders together in firming up a "Mahagathbandhan" (Grand Alliance) to challenge the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners. There were talks of an alliance between the AAP and the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in the national capital, but the local leadership of the latter is believed to be against it. The AAP and the Congress have been bitter rivals in Delhi and Punjab.

(With inputs from PTI)