'No Khela in 2024': Ramdas Athawale warns Mamata Banerjee defeating PM Modi is beyond her

Amid the possibility of an anti-Modi alliance helmed by Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Thursday said it is beyond Mamata Banerjee's capacity to face PM Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Athawale seemingly took a swipe on the 'Khela Hobe' slogan coined by Mamata Banerjee during the West Bengal assembly elections as the same slogan is being used by Opposition leaders to disrupt the Rajya Sabha session as well in the political arena to counter the BJP. Mamata Banerjee has frequently made use of the slogan 'Khela Hobe' (Game on) as she also marked her presence in Delhi to meet a number of Opposition leaders to carve out an anti-BJP alliance.

On a rather jovial note, Ramdas Athawale took to Twitter and said there will be no 'Khela' but a 'Mela' (Fair) under the leadership of PM Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while adding that PM Modi will once again become the prime minister with a landslide victory.

"There will be no 'Khela' in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There will be a 'Mela' under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is not in Mamata Banerjee's capacity to face Narendra Modi. In the coming (Lok Sabha) elections, Narendra Modi will once again become the prime minister with a clear majority," Ramdas Athawale tweeted.

Mamata Banerjee's hectic parleys

This reaction by Ramdas Athawale comes as Mamata Banerjee has been making fast moves in the corridors of Delhi to project herself as the prime contender against PM Modi in 2024. Banerjee has been making hectic parleys with other Opposition leaders having an anti-BJP stance. For now, there is nothing common across the Opposition parties except their anti-BJP stance.

Moreover, there remains ambiguity over the face of the Opposition in the 2024 elections. Although Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi followed by a meeting with AAP Supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and has a further line up of meetings in Delhi, it is still unclear as to who would lead the Opposition charge against PM Modi in the 2024 elections. She is said to have been in touch with Nationalist Congress Party Supremo Sharad Pawar as well.

Also, it remains to be seen if Kejriwal, who is eyeing to expand his party's footprints in Punjab, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand among other states, will let Mamata Banerjee take the lead in the national politics and be the face of the Opposition against PM Modi. The question arises because Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal have both defeated the BJP in their respective state assembly elections and both could be the contenders against PM Modi, even as Mamata Banerjee is making fast moves for having carried the momentum of the recently won Assembly elections.

Although the entire Opposition still has more than 2.5 years for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it is pertinent to see how the Congress - a dormant Opposition party with a national presence and other Opposition parties having no national footprint but regional dominance will come together with a common agenda to defeat PM Modi led BJP. The BJP has challenged Mamata Banerjee to contest the Lok Sabha polls as a prime ministerial candidate against PM Modi.