A joint conference of political parties convened by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjeeset to begin in a few hours, will offer a glimpse of the state of Opposition unity ahead of the Presidential polls.
At least three parties out of 19 invited by Banerjee are likely to skip the meeting. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) are likely to figure among the notable omissions, apart from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which is considered close to the NDA fold.
So far, the participation of Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Shiv Sena are confirmed in the meeting, which is being seen as an attempt by the TMC to lead the Opposition bloc in picking a consensus candidate to be pitted against the NDA’s Presidential nominee.
Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi on Tuesday, has already held one round of meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who has turned down requests to be fielded as the joint Opposition candidate. Pawar also met leaders of the left parties on Tuesday.
Banerjee had invited Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to the meeting, which will be held at the Constitution Club of India from around 3 pm. Kejriwal and Mann are attending a public event at Punjab’s Jalandhar during the day.
Sources said that the AAP is likely to stay away citing the presence of the Congress in the meeting. The AAP has, over the last one decade, relegated the Congress to the margins of Delhi politics and Punjab.
The ties between the two parties soured further after their alliance talks ahead of the 2019 general elections broke down, triggering a bitter public spat between Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
TRS, which was also against the TMC’s decision to invite Congress to the meeting, will also skip the meeting. Telangana Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao had conveyed his displeasure to Banerjee over the invite to Congress.