Opp parties favour consensus candidate for Prez polls, open to put up a candidate if necessary: Mamata

NEW DELHI, May 26: Major opposition parties including Congress, Left parties, Trinamool Congress and various regional parties are in favour of a consensus and a “secular” candidate for Presidential polls, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said here today.
Emerging out of a meeting of the opposition parties convened by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Ms Banerjee said “everybody is in favour of a consensus and a secular candidate”.
However, she said in case the consensus does not emerge between the ruling dispensation and the opposition parties, the major opposition parties would form a smaller group to select a candidate on behalf of the opposition parties.
The meeting today also took stock of the three years of performance of the Modi Government, she said adding the parties felt that there has been gross failure on the part of the centre to control the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and also in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.  The meeting is being attended among others by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and senior leaders from various parties including Sharad Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Lalu Prasad, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav.
The meeting of the opposition parties has been convened by Sonia Gandhi.  However, regional parties like BJD in Odisha, TRS in Telangana and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu gave it a miss. DMK was, however, represented by Kanimozhi. (UNI)