Breaking Opposition ranks, Mamata to skip meeting on CAA-NRC called by Sonia Gandhi

KOLKATA: Breaking the opposition ranks, Trinamool chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would not attend the January 13 meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on evolving a joint strategy on the CAA and NRC and discuss the violence against students in various universities.

The BSP is also unlikely to attend the meet as party chief Mayawati has of late been targetting Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over her visits to UP.

Accusing the Congress and the Left of playing “dirty politics” Mamata said in Kolkata rgar she would fight against the CAA-NRC alone as the opposition politics in the state was against their national stand. ‘’I have decided not to attend the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi as I don’t support the violence that the Left and the Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday),” she said in the Assembly. “If needed, I will fight alone.”

There were fierce clashes between Trinamool and Left workers in the state during the Bharat bandh. According to Congress sources, Mamata’s decision to pull out of the opposition meeting scheduled in Parliament annexe is more because of the Left parties, keeping in mind the state politics.

While other opposition parties are expected to attend, there are doubts about both BSP and Akhilesh Yadav-led SP attending. They had skipped the opposition meets in the past.

 “We expect that the BSP will skip the meeting as Mayawati is upset over Priyanka’s out reach programs in UP that also includes people from Dalit and other backward classes… BSP is very unpredictable but we hope that SP will attend the meeting,” said a Congress source.