Sonia Gandhi summon Mamata Banerjee to hold talks about presidential elections

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will leave Kolkata for Delhi this evening following a telephonic call from Sonia Gandhi which Mamata had received on Tuesday morning.

A senior official of the chief minister's secretariat said on Tuesday that AICC chief Sonia Gandhi had called the chief minister this morning and requested her to rush to Delhi to hold talks with the Congress chief. "The chief minister will leave Kolkata for Delhi and catch a flight at around 5 p.m," the official informed.

Tuesday's development is significant as political circles here feel that Sonia Gandhi might hold talks with Mamata over selection of Presidential candidate. Mamata has not said anything about nomination of Pranab Mukherjee as the candidate for presidential elections.

Rather, she had suggested the names of Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for the post of the president. The Congress is yet to announce the name of presidential candidate and it seems that Sonia Gandhi will discuss with Mamata about the possible candidate for the post of the president before announcing the name of the candidate.

Meanwhile, Mamata has postponed her meeting with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) leaders which was scheduled to take place on June 14 following call from Sonia Gandhi this morning. It is learnt that the meeting of Mamata and GJM leadership will take place on June 16.