Abhishek meets Akhilesh in Delhi, Uddhav in Mumbai

New Delhi/Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Thursday, reaffirmed that the people of India rejected the Modi government.

This statement came as leaders of the INDIA bloc convened for a series of meetings, two days after the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll results.

“The Narendra Modi government has been rejected by the people and this is just the beginning,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in New Delhi.

The TMC national general secretary and party leader O’Brien then went to Mumbai and met Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday evening.

On Wednesday, Banerjee after attending a meeting of the INDIA bloc held separate meetings with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha members Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh, it was learnt.

According to sources the meeting with Thackeray took take place at his residence ‘Matoshree’.

Banerjee along with O’Brien met Yadav at his Delhi residence, a source said and added that both the TMC national general secretary and the Samajwadi Party chief were in “complete agreement on the way forward”. While not commenting on what transpired in the meeting, O’Brien said Modi and his government have been rejected.

“Modi’s BJP ran the government in India for 10 years. He and his government have been rejected. That is the starting point. We move forward from here,” he told reporters.

Another TMC leader pointed out that theirs is the only party in the INDIA bloc that fought solo while all others had seat-sharing agreements in some state or the other.

On Wednesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said that the INDIA bloc will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to realise people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP.

Before departing for Delhi, Abhishek Banerjee had said: “I must say the kingmaker is the general public and not any political leader. Those who voted against the price hike, BJP’s tyranny, communal and divisive politics — every poor and common man who voted are the actual kingmakers.”