TRS, BJD, AAP to skip Mamata's meet on Prez poll

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Biju Janata Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal are likely to skip Wednesday's opposition meeting called by Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to forge a consensus on fielding a joint candidate against the NDA in the presidential election.

Banerjee last week invited leaders of 19 political parties, including seven chief ministers, for a meeting in the national capital to produce a “confluence of opposition voices” for the election on July 18.

Leaders from the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi won't attend the meeting, sources in the three parties said.

A BJD leader added on condition of anonymity that the party had not yet received any instruction from their chief Naveen Patnaik. Senior leader Pinaki Misra is also not in the country.

Party leaders invited to the meeting include Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Naveen Patnaik (BJD), K Chandrashekar Rao (TRS), M K Stalin (DMK), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) Hemant Soren (JMM), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), D Raja (CPI), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Lalu Prasad (RJD), Jayant Chaudhary (RLD), former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy (JD-S), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Sukhbir Singh Badal (SAD), Pawan Chamling (Sikkim Democratic Front), and K M Kader Mohideen (IUML).

Some parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, were not invited.

A day ahead of the meeting, Banerjee and Left party leaders met NCP chief Sharad Pawar at his residence separately to try and convince him to be the common opposition candidate for the top constitutional post.

With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.