Efforts on to bridge schism in Opposition ranks for Presidential polls

Efforts to bridge the schism in the Opposition ranks over Presidential polls, which emerged after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “unilateral” attempt to call a meeting to discuss a candidate, are yet to bear fruit due to a lack of consensus among the players, as parties like the Congress are playing the waiting game on taking a call on going ahead with the deliberations on Wednesday.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will be back in Delhi on Tuesday and leaders like Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, whom party chief Sonia Gandhi has appointed as pointsman for Presidential elections, and CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury among others are likely to hold informal discussions during the day on the way forward.

Congress and others are keen to hold the meeting on Wednesday but want to finalise the modalities without creating trouble among Opposition parties.

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Sources said Trinamool Congress is pitching for a “political candidate” senior enough to lend weight to the Presidential candidate. Though there is no official word, sources indicated that Trinamool Congress has former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP leader who joined the Mamata-led party last year, in mind.

On its part, Congress may back and even suggest the name of Pawar, if he is willing. There is also an informal consensus among most of the Opposition parties on Pawar, who has already made it clear that he has no inclination to fight the July 18 polls as he wants to concentrate on active politics.

A senior Opposition leader said that Pawar would fight only a winning battle and there was no chance as of now, even as AAP Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh had met Pawar to impress upon Presidential polls and his party’s support for him.

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Mamata’s letter to 22 Opposition leaders inviting them for a meeting on Wednesday in Delhi to discuss Presidential polls have not gone well with a section of the Opposition with DMK and the Left parties opposing any initiative by the Trinamool Congress supremo, claiming that it would do more harm for the Opposition unity.

As Congress too was not enthused by Mamata’s initiative and issued a statement subtly telling the Bengal leader that Sonia has already started the exercise and that it is in charge, senior Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien reached out to Kharge and Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal to assure that the Chief Minister has no ulterior motive and that they did not want to belittle the Congress.

Sources said Congress is not averse to the June 15 meeting with the Trinamool making it clear that Congress would remain the leading force. A senior leader said Trinamool has conveyed to the Congress leaders that it should even hold the press conference on Presidential polls.

Parties like DMK were upset with the “unilateral” announcement by Mamata, as they felt that it was like showing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin as a secondary figure in national politics.