West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee will visit Andhra Pradesh on March 31 to campaign for the ruling Telugu Desam Party in the state as a mark of opposition unity.

Several other opposition leaders will also be going to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and the TDP, sources said.

“By the end of this month she will visit Andhra Pradesh for a day or two to campaign for N Chandrababu Naidu. It is part of of opposition unity that we all have worked for in the last few months,” said a senior TMC leader. Ms Banerjee will be campaigning for Naidu in some
constituencies of Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Mr Naidu and Ms Banerjee share a cordial relationship and the Andhra Pradesh chief minister had taken part in the January 19 mega opposition rally organized by TMC at the Brigade parade grounds.

Mr Naidu had come to Kolkata again in February to express solidarity with Ms Banerjee when she was on a dharna to protest against the CBI’s attempt to question the then city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.

Apart from Andhra Pradesh, Ms Banerjee will also travel to several other states like Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar where the TMC has put up candidates this time, sources in the party said.

TMC will be fighting in three seats in Jharkhand, one in Andaman, six in Assam and two in Bihar.

Ms Banerjee had announced the names of her party’s candidates for Jamshedpur, Rajmahal and Ranchi in Jharkhand, Karimgunj, Silchar, Dhubri, Kokrajhar Barpeta and Guwahati in Assam, Kisangunj and Maharajgunj in Bihar and in Andaman on March 13 while announcing the list of TMC nomiees for West Bengal.

“We are a national party and therefore we will field candidates in other states. However, we have decided to put up candidates in a few seats where our vote share will not harm opposition parties. We still believe that one-to-one candidate should be fielded against BJP”, she had said.

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