Is BJP MP Varun Gandhi headed in the direction of the Trinamool Congress? 

Speculations have been high that during TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's scheduled three day visit to New Delhi beginning November 22, major political developments relating particularly to election-bound UP would happen. Kuwar Danish Ali - who had quit the JD(S) to join the BSP but later fell out with Mayawati- is being considered as the other likely catch for the TMC. 

Since the TMC's unprecedented success in the West Bengal assembly elections this year, the TMC has been attempting to expand footprints in states including Tripura, Assam, Goa and Uttar Pradesh by mainly pursuing a strategy to induct Congressmen into the TMC fold. In UP, the late Kamalapati Tripathi's grandson Rajeshpati along with son Laliteshpati recently quit the Congress to join the TMC. If Varun too decides to join the TMC ranks, Mamata's quest for a national role for herself in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will get strengthened. 

It is being considered likely that, during her upcoming visit to Delhi, Mamata will be meeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav to discuss the possibility of an informal alliance on seat sharing. Before Parliament's winter season starts on November 29, Mamata is also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand release of Central dues to West Bengal, as also to protest against recent central government action in increasing BSF jurisdiction in the state. 

Although no meeting is scheduled with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Mamata is likely to call on her after her meeting with Modi - just to balance things out. Besides this, possibilities are remote that Mamata will agree to become part of a Congress-led Opposition front against the NDA. In recent months, Mamata has been following her own grand strategy of replacing the Congress as the principal Opposition party against the NDA at the national level.Among prominent Congressmen who have been poached by the TMC in recent months include Sushmita and Luizinho Falerio. 

After having been voted back to power in West Bengal, Mamata had last visited Delhi in June, when she had met Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.