Elections 2014: Mamata Banerjee to kick off campaign on November 25

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee seems to have elbowed her political rivals out in terms of launching the campaign for the 2014 parliamentary elections. Mamata will begin campaign on November 25 at the Brigade Parade Grounds.

BJP and CPM say that the earliest they can launch their campaigns would be 2014 beginning.

The Congress, typical of the confusion within the party, has planned to bring Rahul Gandhi for it’s launch, but has no clue about the date.

“We are expecting a record number of people to come to the Brigade rally next month where the chief minister will announce the party’s political agenda for the Lok Sabha polls”, said Partha Chatterjee, state industries minister and a very senior Trinamool Congress leader.

Like Congress, BJP is keen on fielding Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, but does not know exactly when. Deeply disturbed by the Trinamool move is CPM which has some nine MPs currently. “We can hold the rally only sometime next year,” CPM’s state secretary and politburo member Biman Bose told ET.

Trinamool had trounced CPM in 2009 with Mamata bagging 19 of the 42 Lok sabha seats. Political circles expect Mamata to target at least 30 seats in 2014, riding on the success of assembly polls in 2011 and panchayat polls in 2013. In both elections, she had routed the Marxists.

The decision of an early campaign date perhaps stems from Mamata’s desire to reach out to every constituency which she would be contesting for parliamentary polls. She plans to launch the party’s poll campaign in Tripura some time in December where Trinamool is contesting in two seats.