New Delhi: Ahead of the upcoming presidential election 2022, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached out to the Opposition leaders urging them to attend a meeting on June 15 in New Delhi to chalk out a joint strategy for the polls. In a letter to 22 Opposition leaders, Mamata asked them to participate in a huddle at Constitution Club in Delhi.
The West Bengal CM has written the letter to her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekar Rao, Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi among others.
The development comes after senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge held consultations with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee as well as leaders of the DMK, CPI, CPI-M and the AAP to declare a joint opposition candidate. As per sources, Kharge dialed Banerjee who told him the opposition should put up a consensus candidate for the top job.
Earlier, Sonia Gandhi had talked to the West Bengal CM, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, requesting them to call a common meeting to discuss the joint presidential candidate, the sources said.
The Election Commission announced that polling for the next President of India will be held on July 18. As many as 4,809 electors comprising MPs and MLAs will vote to elect the next President. Incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind's term ends on July 24.
