Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and DMK chief M.Karunanidhi will not be present at third anniversary dinner of the United Progressive Alliance-II (UPA-II) government which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is hosting Tuesday evening. However,representative of the two leaders will attend.
Trinamol Congress sources told IANS that Banerjee will not be coming for the dinner as she was busy in Kolkata.
They said Railway Minister Mukul Roy will represent the party at the dinner.
Banerjee's absense from the dinner comes at a time when she is pressing the central government hard for an interest payment moratorium for West Bengal.
She has also indicated her lack of enthusiasm for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as a possible president candidate.
Banerjee told a TV channel that lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, former West Bengal governor Gopalakrishna Gandhi and former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam were best situated for the president's post.
She added, however, that it was for Congress party to decide whom it wanted to field in the president election.
Karunanidhi will also not be present at the dinner though DMK leaders did not give a reason for absence of the octogenarian leader.
DMK leader T.K.S. Elangovan told IANS that Karunanidhi will not be present nut party MP's will attend the event.
Both Trinamool Congress and DMK are part of the UPA government at the center.