19 Oppn parties attend Sonia’s dinner

New Delhi, March 13

Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s dinner for Opposition parties was attended by leaders of 19 outfits today with some of the Opposition bigwigs choosing to send representatives instead of attending personally.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati were conspicuous by their absence at the dinner Gandhi hosted at her residence today to string like-minded non-NDA parties together against the BJP. Banerjee was represented by TMC Parliamentary Party leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, SP by Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP by Satish Chandra Mishra. While most leaders were from parties that worked with the Congress in the Presidential and Vice Presidential elections, the new entrants to the non-NDA camp were former Bihar CM Jiten Ram Manjhi and former Jharkhand CM and JVM chief Babulal Marandi.

The NCP was represented by chief Sharad Pawar, NC by Omar Abdullah, JMM by former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, AIUDF by Baddrauddin Ajmal, RJD by Tejasvi Yadav and his sister Misa Bharti, RLD by Ajit Singh, CPI by D Raja, CPM by Mohammad Salim, DMK by Kanimozhi, RSP by NK Premchandran and JDS by Kupender Reddy.

Also present at the party were leaders of IUML, Kerala Congress and former JD-U leader Sharad Yadav.

The Congress was in full strength with the following leaders in attendance — president Rahul Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Randeep Singh Surjewala.  — TNS