Host of oppn leaders to take part in Mamata Banerjee's Kolkata rally

A host of opposition leaders will participate in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's mega opposition rally in Kolkata on January 19, which will not be attended by the Left parties.

According to sources, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is yet to decide on whether its chief Mayawati will attend the Trinamool Congress (TMC) rally that will also be attended by former JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav.

The Congress will be represented by its leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who has been deputed by the party leadership at the joint opposition rally, as neither its chief Rahul Gandhi or UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will be in attendance.

Kharge will be headed to Kolkata from Mumbai, where he has some meetings with Congress leaders on the same day.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav is likely to reach Kolkata a day earlier on January 18. He will be present at the opposition rally, which is expected to be a show of opposition unity ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

The Left parties, which are boycotting Banerjee's rally, will be present on February 3 in Kolkata where they have organised a mega event, CPI national secretary D Raja said.

Banerjee, the TMC chief, is organising the rally to gather support for a pan-India anti-BJP front and has invited a host of opposition leaders from across the country.

She asserted that TMC's proposed opposition rally will witness participation of non-BJP parties from "Kashmir to Kanyakumari".

The West Bengal Congress has, meanwhile, expressed happiness that Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi will not attend the mega rally, being dubbed as a mega opposition event by the Trinamool Congress.

It wanted the party's national president and the UPA chairperson to stay away from the rally and send in another leader as Banerjee had also skipped the swearing-in ceremony of Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh chief minister last month and instead sent party MP Dinesh Trivedi.