Miffed Left parties to depute MPs for opposition meet called by Mamata on prez poll


PTI | New Delhi | Updated: 14-06-2022 18:03 IST | Created: 14-06-2022 18:03 IST
Miffed Left parties to depute MPs for opposition meet called by Mamata on prez poll
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Miffed at the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's ''unilateral'' decision to call a meeting for discussion on a joint presidential nominee, the CPI(M) and the CPI on Tuesday said they will send their MPs to the opposition meet to be held here on June 15.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja said the top leadership will not attend the meeting called by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief.

The CPI(M) will be represented in the meeting by the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha, Elamaram Kareem.

Both the Left parties have expressed strong reservations over Banerjee's ''unilateral'' decision to call such a meeting.

The West Bengal chief minister has convened the meeting on June 15 at the Constitution Club in the national capital for discussions to come out with a consensus opposition candidate for the presidential poll.

Yechury has also written a strongly worded letter to Banerjee where he has reiterated his objections to the way the meeting has been convened. In his letter, Yechury has said that such meetings of opposition parties have always followed a procedure of prior mutual consultations to enable the maximum participation of those wishing to join. ''However, in this instance, we received a unilateral communication informing the date, time, venue and agenda. Your letter mentions 'a fruitful confluence of opposition voices is the need of the hour'. This could have been better achieved if there had been mutual consultation and a proper time to enable party leaders to reschedule their prior commitments to attend such a meeting. Unfortunately, there were only three days between the receipt of your letter and the date of the meeting,'' said Yechury.

He further said that his party has consistently championed the need to strengthen the broadest mobilisation of all secular forces to safeguard the Indian Constitution and the secular democratic character of the Indian Republic. ''In line with this, as the issue is to discuss the forthcoming election of the President of India and given the fact that the President is the custodian of the Indian Constitution, the CPI(M) will be represented at the meeting by the leader of our group in the Rajya Sabha, Shri Elamaram Kareem,'' he said. Sources said that similar letters would be sent to Banerjee by several opposition leaders to register their strong reservation over the way this meeting has been convened.

The election of the President of India will be held on July 18.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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