West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee  met NCP chief Sharad Pawar at his residence in Delhi, a day ahead of the opposition meeting on the next month’s presidential polls.

Pawar’s party has ruled out speculations about him being in the race to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and said is not keen on contesting the election, even as some opposition parties have endorsed his name as the opposition’s joint candidate.

An NCP minister was quoted as saying by PTI that the NCP chief does not want to restrict himself to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and that he is busy trying to bring the opposition together ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee has convened a joint opposition meeting on Wednesday at the Constitution Club in the national capital to reach a consensus over a common candidate for the post of President.

The Bengal CM had last week written to 22 opposition leaders and chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states with an initiative of “strong and effective opposition against divisive forces”.

Several opposition parties are likely to attend the meeting and take forward the discussion on the joint candidate.

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala may attend the meeting on behalf of the party.

The election for the country’s highest constitutional post will be held on July 18 and the counting for it will take place on July 21. As many as 4,809 members of the electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs are set to elect the successor to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind.

The ruling BJP-led NDA is comfortably placed to win the presidential election as it has half the votes of the electorate.