Congress won't be able to win alone, federal front necessary: Mamata
Kolkata, April 24: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said Congress alone won't be able to win the 2019 General Elections and urged it to be more flexible in seat sharing with the regional parties so as to confront the BJP in one-on one fights.
Claiming that the idea of a federal front can work if the opposition parties unite on a common minimum agenda, she said the election results would be in their favour if the Front can pit the BJP in one-on-one contests in 80 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats.
"In the current situation, the Congress won't be able to do anything on their own. So it would be better if all the states can come together and form a federal front. All regional parties have their own ideology and compulsion towards their states. The parties can come together through a common minimum agenda," Banerjee said during an interview in News18 Bangla channel.
"Even if we can fight the BJP on a one is to one basis in at least 80 percent of the seats, the result would be very much in our favour," she claimed.
Citing the examples of parties like DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and Telegu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, the Trinamool Congress supremo said it would be prudent to let the most powerful regional party contest the elections against BJP while others can provide outside support.
"It is not that only Congress is present all over the country. Andhrea has Telegu Desam, Maharastra has Shiv Sena, West Bengal has Trinamool Congress. It is not necessary that Congress has to fight the election everywhere in the country. Why would they contest everywhere? They have their limitations also..." Banerjee said.
"If some parties decide to give outside support to the federal front or be a part of it they can do so," she added.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases. Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
