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'You have not seen Akhilesh, Mufti together': At opposition meet, Mamata thrashes 'bulldozing' govt
Talking about parties which did not attend the opposition meeting on Wednesday, including TRS, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Supremo Mamata Banerjee said it does not matter as so many parties attended and those who did not might have some other engagements.
The opposition meeting on Wednesday led by Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee decided to come up with a consensus candidate for the Presidential polls after it was made public that Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar was not keen on becoming a presidential candidate. “All leaders unanimously agreed on Sharad Pawar ji. But if he is not interested, other names will come from other parties,” Mamata Banerjee said after the two-hour meeting in the national concluded.
"The main takeaway of the meeting is that so many parties attended it. Many senior leaders attended the meeting. You have not seen Akhilesh and Mehbooba Mufti together in a long time. Even CPM, CPI, RSP, Shiv Sena, DMK were part of the meeting," Mamata said. “Only one, two parties may have not come. They might be busy,” the West Bengal chief minister said.
“Today was only the beginning. It was a good thing that all opposition leaders sat together after so many months. Many such meetings will take place because in our country bulldozing is going on. All government agencies are being misused. So opposition will have to sit together,” Mamata said.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Aam Aadmi Party, and the BJD stayed away from the meeting for which Mamata Banerjee wrote to 22 opposition parties. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said his party was not invited to the meeting and had AIMIM been invited, he would not have attended as Congress was attending the meeting.
As Sharad Pawar is believed to have declined to be the opposition's candidate for the presidential election, some opposition leaders came up with the name of Gopal Krishna Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
