West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday took the lead in attempting to forge a unity for the Presidential polls and wrote to almost all the Opposition leaders requesting them to attend a meeting on June 15 convened by her in the national Capital to prepare a joint strategy for the upcoming elections.
Besides writing to Congress chief Soni Gandhi, Banerjee also reached out to the opposition CMs and leaders to participate in the joint meeting in the national capital, according to a statement issued by her party.
Banerjee addressed her letter to 22 Opposition leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann.
"Our hon'ble chairperson @MamataOfficial calls upon all progressive opposition forces to meet and deliberate on the future course of action keeping the Presidential elections in sight, at the Constitution Club, New Delhi on June 15 2022 at 3 PM," Banerjee's Trinamool Congress said.
With the Presidential election round the corner, Banerjee, with an initiative of strong & effective opposition against the divisive forces, has reached out to the opposition CMs and leaders to participate in a joint meeting," the party statement said.
Incidentally, TRS chief and Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao too have been active in the last couple of months in trying to forge a Opposition unity for the Presidential polls. Recently, KCR took a whirlwind tour of Delhi and Punjab meeting SP leader Akhilesh Yadav and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, doling out financial assistance to farmers before moving south to meet the likes of former PM HD Devegowda.
The Presidential polls will be held on July 18, with 4,809 members of the electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs set to elect the successor to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind. The counting of votes will take place on July 21.
A senior member of the TMC said that the purpose of the mission is basically to consider some names which can be proposed as a unanimous opposition candidate. "There might be discussion on whether there is a possibility for the opposition parties to announce the name of their candidate before BJP announces their nominee," he said.
He also said that preliminary discussions between Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have already been made about the probable names of candidates.
Soon after BJP clinched victory in the Assembly polls in four out of five states, including Uttar Pradesh, Banerjee said on the floor of the Bengal assembly that the game is not over yet since BJP will not be able to get its candidate elected in the presidential polls with support from other parties.
Sources said Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge talked to Banerjee over the phone and that the Trinamool Congress chief wanted the opposition to come up with a consensus candidate for the top post. Kharge's discussion with Banerjee came a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi talked to her as well as Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, besides NCP leader Sharad Pawar and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, asking them to organise a common meeting to discuss the issue of a joint presidential candidate, the sources said.
Kharge spoke to Tiruchi Siva of the DMK, Sanjay Singh of the AAP, Elamaram Kareem of the CPI-M and Binoy Viswam of the CPI on Friday.
He will also hold discussions with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in this regard later. He said he will be holding talks with other opposition leaders soon. Kovind's term ends on July 24.