Top-rung leaders to skip Mamata's meet on Presidential polls

Opposition parties have decided to bury the hatchet and attend a meeting called by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Presidential elections on Wednesday here, even as the leaders are now looking beyond NCP chief Sharad Pawar as a joint candidate after he conveyed that he is not in the fray.

No final decision is expected at Wednesday’s meeting, which will primarily be attended by second-rung leaders, while a meeting of top leaders to finalise a name is likely to be held on June 20 or 21.

Pawar is likely to be entrusted with taking forward the process of coordinating with other leaders on reaching out to possible candidates listed by the leaders in the meeting.

Read | Presidential election 2022: Potential candidates

While suspicion is writ large on leaders as Mamata outsmarted Congress to officially announce a meeting, which some of them initially thought of skipping, parties like the Congress, CPM, CPI and DMK among others decided to attend the deliberations for a show of unity.

Other than Pawar, top leaders and chief ministers will give the meeting a skip. Many of the parties decided that top-rung leaders need not attend the meeting.

It will be interesting to see what position the AAP will take since the party has signalled that it may skip the deliberations. However, according to sources, there could be a last-minute change in plans, causing the leadership to send its Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh.

Also read | Pawar said no to being Oppn nominee for Prez poll, other names in consideration: Yechury

Though parties did not want to show the Opposition in disarray, simmering tension was on display with CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury shooting off a terse letter to Mamata, saying the “unilateral” way in which the meeting was convened had the potential to derail the Opposition unity, but his party was accepting the invite, as it stood for the “broadest mobilisation” of all secular forces.

Meanwhile, TMC did not hesitate to project Mamata as the main architect of the fresh move but gave a bit of credit to Pawar too, through a tweet, which said, “two stalwarts” were setting the stage for the meeting of all progressive Opposition forces. The tweet came after Mamata met Pawar.

Read | Efforts on to bridge schism in Opposition ranks for Presidential polls

While Congress leaders were busy with protests following the questioning of Rahul Gandhi, Yechury and his CPI counterpart D Raja first held a meeting with Pawar. Later, they met DMK’s T R Baalu, while Mamata met Pawar separately.

The Opposition leaders have also invited Naveen Patnaik-led BJD and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy-led YSR Congress to be part of the deliberations. Both the parties keep a distance from the Opposition grouping and help the ruling BJP on several occasions in Parliament.