Mamata's Oppn meet over Presidential polls today; AAP, TRS to skip

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. (Illustration: Moneycontrol)

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will convene the crucial meeting of Opposition parties on June 15 with an aim to forge a consensus on fielding a joint candidate for the Presidential polls scheduled next month.

The Trinamool Congress chief had recently written to as many as 22 leaders of Opposition parties, including Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi, inviting them to be part of the platform against ‘divisive’ forces.

As many as 16 parties, including Congress, are expected to attend the meeting.  These include the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the National Conference (NC), Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Lok Dal, CPM, CPI, to name a few.  Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep  Surjewala are expected to represent the Congress party in the meeting to be held in Delhi.

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Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have, however, decided to not attend the meeting. Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will also skip the meeting.

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also decided not to attend today's meeting. The party will take a call only after the candidate is finalised, according to the sources.

The election for the next President of India will be held on July 18, the Election Commission said on June 9. The counting will take place on July 21. The term of the current President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24 and an election for the next president has to be held before that day.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may not have the numbers to get the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate as the next President of India. So, the role of parties like Biju Janata Dal (BJD ), and YSRCP will be key. BJD has 12 members in the Lok Sabha, nine in the Rajya Sabha and 114 in the 147-member state assembly. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP has 22 Lok Sabha seats, nine in the Rajya Sabha and 151 out of 175 in the state assembly.

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In terms of electoral college votes, NDA needs another 13,000 to have its nominee through, which means support from either BJD (31,686 votes) or YSRCP (43,450) will be enough.

Banerjee also met NCP chief Sharad Pawar at his residence on June 14 to try and convince him to be the common opposition candidate for the top constitutional post. Pawar has turned down the proposal, according to the sources.