Rahul and Sonia Gandhi to skip Mamata's mega rally, Mayawati keeps her guessing

New Delhi, Jan 16: Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will give TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's grand opposition rally in Kolkata a miss and will instead send senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge to represent the party.

The rally is also another attempt by the TMC to project Banerjee as a potential prime ministerial face if the opposition parties get their arithmetic right.

TMC is organising the rally to gather support for a pan-India anti-BJP front. Banerjee had been touring the country since the last one year in an effort to shore up a strong and united opposition front to fight the Lok Sabha elections against the BJP.

The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, who recently announced their alliance for 2019 polls, are also keeping the TMC guessing. Both parties have skipped the last two Opposition meeting in Delhi. The Left parties, who face obliteration in West Bengal, will also be skipping the event.

Among those to be present at the rally include Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal and Janata Dal-S leader and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.