Mamata Banerjee will not attend dinner to be hosted by Sonia Gandhi on March 13

TMC chief Mamata Banerjee is not likely to attend the dinner being hosted by Sonia Gandhi on March 13.

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not likely to attend the dinner hosted being hosted by the Opposition leaders by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on March 13.

According to sources, the Trinamool Congress chief will instead send her party colleague Derek O Brien or Sudeep Bandopadhyay to represent the party at the dinner.

The firebrand West Bengal leader is scheduled to tour Darjeeling and the surrounding areas during that time.

Besides talks of an anti-BJP front, Sonia Gandhi's dinner invite to political leaders has also created a buzz these days. 

Besides Mamata, several other political leaders including former chief minister of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi have been invited to the dinner.

Manjhi recently parted ways with the BJP-led NDA.

Manjhi, who formed Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), has been invited by senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel to join the dinner hosted in the National capital.

Manjhi, a Dalit community leader, recently broke away from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led grand alliance.

The dinner comes in the light of efforts to form an anti-BJP alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Many political parties including Samajwadi Party, BSP, Congress, NCP, HAM and few others have hinted at a possibility of joining hands to counter the BJP government at the Centre.

According to reports, Sonia Gandhi has also invited DMK working president MK Stalin, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and members of various parties from different states, who are not part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. 

(With ANI inputs)