New Delhi. West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has called a meeting of opposition parties today to form a consensus on the Presidential election. This meeting will be held at Delhi’s Constitution Club at 3 pm. Even before the meeting, due to the displeasure of Congress and CPM with TMC, questions have been raised on the issue of consensus formation in this meeting. There is resentment in Congress due to TMC’s taunt on Rahul Gandhi’s appearance in ED. At the same time, the top leadership of both the communist parties CPM and CPI have also spoken of not attending the meeting. Both the parties will send their MPs to the meeting.
Mamta’s fielding a common opposition candidate for the presidential election has already suffered a setback when Nationalist Congress NCP chief Sharad Pawar made it clear that he will not contest. This statement came after the meeting of Mamta Banerjee and Sharad Pawar. However, leaders of all opposition parties had asked Sharad to contest the elections. The term of President Ram Nath Kovind is ending on July 24. Voting for the new president is to be held on July 18 and counting of votes on July 21. After the meeting with Mamta, Sharad Pawar had said that our resolve to fight the divisive forces has become stronger.
Mamta had written a letter to the leaders of 22 opposition parties and invited them for the meeting. On the other hand, the ruling BJP has also started playing its trick. The BJP has entrusted the responsibility to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and National President JP Nadda to build a consensus with the opposition for the presidential election. It is believed that even if the opposition does not come to a consensus on the BJP candidate, then there is no problem. With the help of YSRCP of Andhra Pradesh and BJD of Odisha, BJP will easily make its President. Overall, at present, the upper hand seems to be tilted in favor of BJP.