West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit Delhi again on May 24 in a bid to reach a consensus on the presidential candidate of the opposition parties.
A top source in Trinamool Congress said, “Didi is coming back to Kolkata today from Delhi. She would again go to Delhi next week.”
Interestingly, President Pranab Mukherjee will also be coming to Kolkata to attend a hospital inauguration function where the West Bengal CM will be present.
Mamata had met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi before meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday. She had also met President Pranab Mukherjee on the same day.
She had tried to persuade Mukherjee to be their candidate for another term which he refused. Mamata’s second choice is former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. However, Gandhi is yet to be accepted by the other opposition parties.
The West Bengal CM also expressed willingness to accept any other name, except those proposed by the BJP.
A source in the TMC said Sonia Gandhi had asked Mamata to take lead in regrouping all non-NDA parties because among many non-NDA parties, they are anti-Congress.
Mamata is expected to stay in Delhi for a couple of days during her next visit and meet a galaxy of leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Naveen Patnaik, H. D. Deve Gowda and Sharad Yadav. She has also sought an appointment with Nitish Kumar and urged Lalu Prasad Yadav to come to Delhi.
However, numbers are still in favour of the BJP-led NDA who are behind of just a few thousand votes.
