Notwithstanding the exit polls results that have given a clear victory to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) , Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu will be meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later on Monday afternoon to continue with his efforts to create an Opposition block of non-NDA parties.
In a separate development, the BSP chief Mayawati has dropped her plans to come to Delhi for a meeting with Opposition leaders including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
There was never an official confirmation about Mayawati-Sonia meeting but sources had confirmed to The Hindu about the BSP chief’s plan to fly down to Delhi.
However, with exits polls giving a clear verdict to the BJP and Mr Modi’s leadership , there may have been a change of plans as many Opposition leaders may prefer to wait for the final results to be out on May 23.
The possible Sonia-Mayawati meeting was being viewed as a sign of a thaw between the Congress and BSP as the party [BSP] had kept away from all the recent meetings convened by the Congress, including the ones that were meant to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s policies.
The possibility of the meeting emerged soon after Mr. Naidu met Ms Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Saturday.
Mr Naidu has been playing the role of a facilitator to bring all non-NDA opposition parties together and form a coalition if the need arises in case of a hung verdict.
“Mr Naidu wants to create a a block of parties that could approach the President Ram Nath Kovind as a single entity,” a senior leader, familiar with the deliberations, told The Hindu.
After having one round of meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday, he flew off to Lucknow.
On Sunday, Mr Naidu once again met Mr Gandhi, Mr Pawar and called on Sonia Gandhi to discuss about his deliberations with Ms Mayawati and Mr Yadav.
