Presidential Election: TRS to stay off Mamata meet

The TRS party on Tuesday decided to skip the meeting of non-BJP parties held by TMC (Trinamool Congress) president and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in the National capital on Wednesday to discuss fielding a joint Opposition candidate for the Presidential election.

TRS president and CM K. Chandrashekar Rao took the decision after a five-hour-long meeting with senior party leaders at Pragathi Bhavan. The party said that it wanted to be equidistant from the BJP and the Congress, and was skipping the meeting as the Congress party would be present.

Mamata Banerjee landed in Delhi on Tuesday and the Congress and other parties such as CPI, and CPI (M), confirmed they would be attending the meeting.

Shiv Sena’s Subhash Desai, DMK’s TR Baalu, RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary, and Mehbooba Mufti have confirmed that they will be attending the meeting.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president, and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will also participate in the meeting. NCP chief Sharad Pawar will also be participating in this meeting.

According to the reports, Sharad Pawar has declined to be the opposition’s candidate in the upcoming presidential poll.

President Ram Nath Kovind’s term is going to end on July 24. The election will be held on July 18 for the next President of India and counting will be conducted three days later, if required.