Rahul, Mamata pair down tone after KCR meet with Vijayan on Third Front

Mumbai: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has been at the forefront of stitching together a “non-BJP, non-Congress front”, may have had an impact in West Bengal after meeting with his Kerala counterpart.

BJP has relentlessly attacked both Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee. On Tuesday, campaigning in the same district, Rahul and Mamata tiptoed around each other.

Congress chief Rahul certainly seemed to offer a truce. Rahul, speaking in Purulia, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi but mentioned Mamata maybe twice, versus 20 Modi mentions.

Attacking Mamata, Rahul said, “Modi had promised Rs 15 lakh to everyone. Has anyone here got that money? Surely someone should have. Has Modi or Mamata given anyone a job? Has Modi got a fair price for farmers? Has Mamata?"

But previously, Rahul had attacked Mamata Banerjee for failing the jobless and the farmers.

"Have Mamata or Modi given jobs to anyone here? No one. What has Mamataji done for development here in the last few years? Jobs? Farmers? Narendra Modi lies. And the chief minister makes promises but doesn't deliver," Rahul Gandhi had said.

Responding to the attack, Mamata called Rahul Gandhi a "bachcha chhele" or "young lad."

On Tuesday, though she was campaigning not far from where Gandhi was in Purulia, she did not attack the Congress at all. She only focused on BJP president Amit Shah and PM Modi.

On the same day, Amit Shah slammed Mamata over the 'Jai Shri Ram' slogan. On Sunday, she had chided people who had shouted that slogan as her car went past in a town in West Midnapore district.

The ceasefire between Mamata and Rahul might be due to the KCR-Vijayan meet on a federal front plan.

KCR's Telangana Rashtra Samiti is one of six that want to be seen as equidistant from the BJP and the Congress. The other parties include BJD, YSR Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP and Trinamool Congress.

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