Sonia Gandhi reaches out to Mamata Banerjee as Congress tries to unite Opposition for Presidential poll

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and both agreed to meet in Delhi early next week, as part of Gandhi’s efforts to forge a broader unity among Opposition parties against BJP and field a joint Opposition presidential candidate.

Gandhi rang up Banerjee on Wednesday morning and fixed up a meeting for next Monday. It will mark a new beginning for the two after the ill-fated CPM-Congress alliance in the 2016 assembly polls had upset the warm ties between the two.

In the backdrop of the raging political confrontation between the NDA regime at the Centre and West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress government, Banerjee is widely believed to be as anxious as Congress and many other similarly-placed Opposition parties for a united defence line against the Centre and BJP.


In this connection, Banerjee already held a meeting with Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, while Gandhi tries to be the bridge between Mamata and CPM. The Congress leadership had earlier indicated Gandhi would meet Banerjee and BSP leader Mayawati soon as part of the Opposition unity efforts.

Meet on J&K:
As part of the preparatory meetings for holding an Opposition sponsored meeting on J&K situation, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and JDU leader Sharad Yadav held another meeting on Wednesday.

As ET reported last week, there is a broader agreement on holding such a conference and co-opting the civil society initiative of BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. Details for the conference will be worked out soon after Manmohan Singh and other senior Congress leaders who are part of J&K affairs meet Sonia Gandhi on her return from hospital, where she was admitted for food poisoning on Tuesday.

Leaders of many Opposition parties have already touched base on the plan for holding the J&K conference to which political parties, activists, intellectual and other stakeholders will be invited. On Wednesday, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah had talks with CPI secretary D Raja and the two called for a political initiative in J&K.