Mamata speaks to Kumaraswamy over Karnataka crisis

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked Karnataka's HD Kumaraswamy to hold his ground and not give in to the efforts of the BJP, sources said Thursday.

Banerjee, stung by defections herself with several of the Trinamool Congress MPs and MLAs joining the BJP, dialled the Karnataka chief minister last evening and spoke to him over the political crisis in the state, the sources said.

They said it was during this conversation that Banerjee suggested about the protest by opposition parties in Parliament on Thursday. It was decided that the protest should be led by some other party than the Congress as the grand old party, which is itself embroiled in a leadership crisis, may fail to unite the opposition.

TMC lawmakers then started calling up leaders of other opposition parties, they added.

"She (Mamata) called up Kumaraswamy around 6.30 pm and discussed the situation in the state. It was then that a plan was drawn to hold a joint protest in Parliament premises on Thursday over