Congress, Left to join opposition meet called by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Delhi today

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee met NCP leader Sharad Pawar in Delhi on Tuesday, a day before the meeting of opposition leaders convened by her to work out a joint strategy against "divisive forces" in the country.
The meeting with Pawar would set the stage for "a fruitful confluence of opposition voices" in the run-up to the presidential polls on July 18, Trinamool seniors said.
Tuesday's evening Banerjee-Pawar meeting coincided with the news that Congress seniors Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala would attend Wednesday's opposition meeting. "Our resolve to fight divisive forces grows stronger," a post uploaded on the official Trinamool website aft-er the meeting read.
CPM Rajya Sabha leader Elamaram Kareem would represent the party at Wednesday's meeting, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury wrote to Banerjee. Yechury, however, reminded the Trinamool chief that such meetings should always follow a procedure of "prior mutual consultations" to ensure maximum participation.
Banerjee's taking the initiative to combine non-BJP opposition forces was natural after the defeat she handed out "single-handedly" to the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah in the 2021 Bengal assembly polls, Trinamool leaders said.
A rallying point for the opposition gathering could be the questioning of opposition leaders by the ED and the CBI. Banerjee had flagged the issue in her letter to opposition leaders. "Opposition parties are being deliberately targeted by different central agencies. It is time we strengthen our resistance," she said in the June 11 letter.
The Congress leaders likely to make it to the meeting at Constitution Club on Wednesday were among those detained by Delhi Police after they protested the ED questioning of Rahul Gandhi. Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, too, raised the issue in Tripura on Tuesday, lambasting the CBI for targeting him and his wife in the illegal coal-mining case. An eight-member CBI team went to his Harish Mukherjee Road residence here on Tuesday to question his wife, Rujira Banerjee.
Banerjee has invited, among others, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, NCP leader Pawar, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann. She also sent a "get well soon" message to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on June 12 after coming to know that the latter was down with Covid and had to be admitted to a hospital.
But the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD is unlikely to attend the June 15 meeting. "As far as issues pertaining to the presidential polls, our party president and CM, Naveen Patnaik, will take the right call at the right time. He has already stated that the BJD's support in the presidential election will be based on selection of candidates, which is yet to be done by any party. Why should we side with any group?" a senior BJD leader asked.