Mamata Banerjee calls Opposition meet on Presidential polls

Mamata's move is viewed as an expression of dissent over Congress taking the lead role in the negotiations to find an Opposition candidate

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday invited over 20 Opposition leaders for a meeting in Delhi next Wednesday to discuss Presidential elections.

Mamata will host the meeting, which comes even as the Congress started its own consultation process a couple of days ago, at Delhi’s Constitution Club on June 15 at 3 PM. She said a "fruitful confluence of opposition voices is the need of the hour to echo the deprived and unrepresented communities" at a time the country's democracy is going through "troubling times”.

However, all Opposition leaders are not feeling the same and view it as brinkmanship.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, who has been invited by Mamata, said, “these meetings are decided after consultations and agreement on a mutually convenient date. Usually, the single largest party takes the initiative. Such consultations (for a meeting) were going on when a unilateral letter was sent and publicised.”

A senior Opposition leader said Mamata’s invite has the “potential of only helping the BJP instead of uniting all secular forces”. The leader felt that this was to “preempt” a meeting that is being worked out around June 15 after taking into account the availability of leaders like Pawar, who has earlier told some Opposition leaders that he could be in Delhi only around June 20 as Maharashtra will have Legislative Council elections.

However, Trinamool Congress sources said the letter was “self-explanatory” and there was “no egos involved”, as a job is to be done. There is a need to find a “strong political candidate” and Mamata’s effort is to set up an Opposition platform, they said adding the candidate, probably a non-Congress person, will evolve through “organic” consultations.

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Mamata’s invite was sent 22 leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI General Secretary D Raja and Chief Ministers Uddhav Thackeray, Arvind Kejriwal, Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrasekhar Rao, MK Stalin, Hemant Soren and Pinarayi Vijayan among others. Letters have also gone to leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah.

Her move is viewed as an expression of dissent over Congress taking the lead role in the negotiations to find a joint Opposition candidate for the Presidential polls and the Trinamool Congress appears to have the support of non-NDA parties like AAP, TRS and Akali Dal who are unwilling to cede space to the Grand Old Party to take pole position in the Presidential polls due to its diminished clout.

Sonia herself had called Mamata, Stalin, Pawar and Yechury among others on June 9 and tasked Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge to speak to various parties to understand their point of view. Kharge, on Friday, had spoken to Mamata among others.

A senior Trinamool Congress leader said that the Congress' "one-upmanship" would not work and it should cede space. The leader also said that the Congress does not have an equation with leaders like Patnaik (BJD) or KCR (TRS) or Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

In her letter, Mamata said the Presidential elections present the "perfect opportunity for all progressive Opposition parties to reconvene and deliberate on the future course of Indian politics".

"All progressive forces in this country need to remain aligned and resist the divisive force that is plaguing us today. Opposition leaders are being deliberately targeted by different central agencies, the country's image is maligned internationally and bitter dissensions are created within. It is time we strengthen our resistance," she wrote.