West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Sonia Gandhi on May 16 to talk about the president's election. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav also invited Mamata to Patna to discuss opposition's common candidate for the presidential election.
Sources have confirmed that Mamata is going to press for the candidature of Gopal Krishna Gandhi. Few months back, she had told newsmen in Kolkata that she was not against L.K. Advani as a candidate for becoming president. But after the Supreme Court judgment on Babri Masjid case, Mamata seems to have changed her mind. Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress secretary general, called for Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi’s arrest, along with the others, against whom investigation has been ordered by apex court.
However, it is doubtful whether the Left would accept Gandhi as a candidate because of his role in Singur movement. Sonia, who is admitted to hospital, has spoken to Mamata over phone on May 9.
"She (Sonia) asked Didi to come to Delhi on May 16. If all is well, our leader would go to Delhi on that day. She would also, in all possibility, talk to Home Minister Rajnath Singh to ask him to not withdraw central forces from Maoists affected zone in Bengal,” said a cabinet minister of West Bengal.
The BJP is yet to decide who would be its candidate for the President's election though several names are being speculated.
