Sonia Gandhi will meet Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati

New Delhi: Taking on a “historic” responsibility, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will meet BSP chief Mayawati, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and DMK leader M.K. Stalin in a bid to arrive at a consensus over an Opposition candidate for the coming presidential poll. President Pranab Mukherjee completes his term in July.

Mrs Gandhi, who met National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Wednesday, has also spoken on the phone with Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad. She has already met JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, NCP’s Sharad Pawar and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K. Kunhalikutty. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has also spoken over phone with former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav.

Sources said that the Congress has decided to “act as the building block for various parties to come together” in this “battle of ideologies”, and the party thinks that “it is a historic responsibility”.

The Opposition parties, which are taking baby steps towards a broad-based anti-Modi coalition, feel that the presidential poll is the acid test to see whether such a conglomerate can work.

The parties first came together on May 1 on socialist leader Madhu Limaye’s birth anniversary as an ostensible show of strength.

Mrs Gandhi is likely to call a meeting of all Opposition parties to thrash out the name of a final candidate after May 15. A “structured” meeting “if needed” would be held, the sources said adding that the parties were hopeful of finalising a name by the third week of this month.

Congress sources said that they were not averse to talking to parties in the NDA for support as they realise that they have a “limitation” as far as numbers were concerned.

But in this battle for “ideologies”, the Congress was not averse to broadening the discussion as well as “assimilating” support from all sides.

“The idea is to find a candidate who is acceptable to the entire country and not only to a certain section. The decision will be on the basis of national interest, upholding the ethos of Indian democracy and the Constitution of the country,” a source said.

The Congress was also “open” to the possibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling Ms Gandhi for fielding a consensual candidate. “But Mr Modi doesn’t believe in consensus,” party sources said.

The parties which hold the key to the presidential polls include AIADMK, BJD, TRS, YSRCP, AAP and INLD. These parties maintain equidistance from the BJP as well as the Congress in their domestic state-level political considerations.

Out of these, the BJD is currently miffed with the BJP after suffering losses in the recent civic polls in Odisha, while the AIADMK is in the midst of merger talks.

The Opposition has calculated that the ruling NDA lacks a marginal two per cent majority to win the polls.