Sharad Pawar invites Owaisi to discuss presidential elections

Owaisi has deputed AIMIM's leader Imtiaz Jaleel for the meeting.

"NCP chief Sharad Pawar invited Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi for a meeting to discuss the upcoming presidential elections. Owaisi thanked Pawar for the kind invitation and has deputed Aurangabad MP Mr Imtiaz Jaleel to represent AIMIM in the meeting," AIMIM said in a statement.

NCP has called Opposition parties meeting on June 21 to discuss upcoming presidential elections at the Parliament.

"In connection with the forthcoming Presidential election, a meeting of Opposition parties has been arranged at 1430 hrs. on June 21, 2022, committee Room-1, Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi. The meeting will be followed by a press conference," the NCP said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold its parliamentary board meeting here on Tuesday where it is likely to finalise its pick for the election slated to be held on July 18, sources said.

The BJP has already formed a 14-member management team to oversee the election. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is the convenor of this team.

Earlier, Leaders of several opposition parties had urged Sharad Pawar to be the joint candidate but the senior NCP leader declined the offer. The Opposition meeting was called by Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and was attended by leaders from 17 opposition parties.

Later, Banerjee mentioned two more names besides Sharad Pawar, which include the names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi. However, on these two names, no other party leader expressed an opinion in this meeting.

Abdullah had also declined the opposition leaders' request to contest the presidential election.

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party did not participate in the meeting which was held at the Constitution Club. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao did not send a representative to the meeting.

Congress participated in the meeting along with 16 other political parties. Apart from TMC, Congress and NCP, the parties which attended the meeting included CPI, CPI(M), CPIML, RSP, Shiv Sena, RJD, SP, National Conference, PDP, JD(S), DMK, RLD, IUML and JMM participated in the meeting held at the Constitution Club of India here.

The polling for the presidential election is slated for July 18 and votes will be counted on July 21. (ANI)