No double game, Didi to tell Sonia

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi here on Thursday ahead of participating an all-opposition meeting on Friday to plead with her to restrain her Bengal party leaders trying to play a double game on her.

Trinamool sources said Mamata is upset at the Congress joining hands with the Left to unnecessarily bring a no-confidence motion against her government in the upcoming Assembly session. They said she believes that such moves are not conducive to the attempts for unity of all opposition parties against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

They said she is not worried from the no-confidence motion as such since it cannot succeed as the Trinaool Congress has 211 MLAs in the Assembly as against the Left Front’s 31 and the Congress strength slumped to 39 after five of its MLAs joined her party.

Sonia has invited leaders of all opposition parties here on Friday for preliminary consultations on fielding a candidate in the Presidential elections and elicit their views on making former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar a common candidate to take on one fielded by the ruling combination. She broached Meira Kumar’s name in a meeting with Mamata last week.

In a counter proposal, Mamata reportedly suggested why not field Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and former Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi (72) as reportedly also suggested by the CPI(M). The Congress sources said his name may also be discussed along with that of Meira Kumar in the Friday conclave while exploring any other names suggested by other parties. They said the conclave may also decide to approach President Pranab Mukherjee (81) to be the Opposition’s candidate for a second term.