People of Bengal deserve Mamata Banerjee's presence in state: BJP

New Delhi: Taking a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over absence of some key opposition parties from a meeting called by her to discuss opposition nominee for Presidential poll, the BJP said that the people, who are reeling under widespread communal violence, deserved her presence in the state.

Banerjee has called a meeting of opposition parties on Wednesday to discuss strategy for a joint opposition candidate for the President's post.

It is learnt that Naveen Patnaik's BJD, K. Chandrashekhar's TRS and Arvind Kerjriwal's AAP are not attending the meeting to be held at the Constitution Club.

BJP West Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya tweeted: "TRS, AAP and now BJD have opted out of the meeting called by Mamata Banerjee to build consensus on opposition's nominee for Presidential election. Her embarrassment notwithstanding, people of Bengal, who are reeling under widespread communal violence, deserve her presence in WB."

On Tuesday, Banerjee met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury to deliberate on the issue. Yechury, along with D. Raja of the CPI and P.C. Chacko, met Pawar where NCP leader Praful Patel was also present.

After the meeting, Yechury had said: "I have been informed that Sharad Pawar has refused to become a opposition candidate but have discussed some names and those are under consideration."

The Congress has asked its three leaders -- Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala to be present in the meeting called by Mamata Banerjee. NCP, Shiv Sena and other parties have also nominated their representatives for the meeting.