Riding high on Anna support, Mamata says Cong will get 60 seats, BJP 150 in LS polls

Armed with social activist Anna Hazare’s support, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday predicted a lowly 60 seats for the Congress and 150 for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections.

Armed with social activist Anna Hazare’s support, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday predicted a lowly 60 seats for the Congress and 150 for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections.

The West Bengal chief minister also described the possibility of a third front backed by bitter rivals, the Left, a non-starter.

“Third front has totally failed… The next government will be a (Trinamool-backed) federal front government... not NDA or UPA,” she said in an interview to CNN-IBN.

She added the “next government will be a stable government”.

Banerjee also announced the Trinamool would contest Lok Sabha polls across India, a position she had hinted at during a party rally in Kolkata on January 30.

Describing the Trinamool as a national party, Banerjee said the party would field candidates in many states and Hazare would select them in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“The Left, BJP and the Congress have understanding in West Bengal… Their Valentine’s Day is going on,” she said when asked about her biggest political rival.

In the same vein, she refused to comment on Hazare's protégé Arvind Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party is not part of any front.

On the possibility of any alliance with the Congress or the BJP, she said, “Today I cannot talk for tomorrow… In 1998, our party was new. AB Vajpayee was the PM. We had earlier supported these parties but withdrawn support too.”