After reaching out to regional satraps M K Stalin and K Chandrasekhar Rao the day before to push for an anti-BJP alliance, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought to exclude the Congress from any such potential formation on Monday, saying that no regional outfit has cordial relations with it and that the "Congress can go its own way."

In the midst of growing goodwill between her and her counterparts in Telangana and Tamil Nadu, Rao and Stalin, Banerjee approached the two on Sunday to arrange meetings of opposition chief ministers.

"The federal structure of the country has been bulldozed...the Constitution of the country is being obliterated." After the BJP's humiliation in the assembly elections in 2021, she stated on Monday that "we all need to stand together to protect it." Her party, the TMC, won four municipal corporations elections in West Bengal, striking yet another body blow to the saffron party.

"We are working together to safeguard the federal framework." She remarked, alluding to her phone calls to Rao and Stalin, that "all regional parties must come to an arrangement."

Banerjee, who has stepped up her efforts to establish an opposition coalition after a spat with the Congress over putting together an alliance in Goa, stated that no regional party is sympathetic with the main opposition party. "The Congress can do what it wants; we'll do what we want," she declared.

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