7 Oppn parties attend Pawar meet, Cong gives it miss

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 22

Seven opposition parties on Tuesday attended a meeting Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar hosted at his residence here with the NCP saying there was “nothing political” about the gathering.

The Congress was not present at the meeting, which was attended by NC’s Omar Abdullah, SP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari, RLD’s Jayant Choudhary, AAP’s Sushil Gupta, CPI’s Binor Viswam and CPM’s Nilotpal Basu.

Invitations to leaders and intellectuals were sent on the letterheads of Rashtra Manch, a political action group formed by former NDA minister and TMC vice-president Yashwant Sinha.

“The meeting was called by Yashwant Sinha, not Sharad Pawar. He hosted it. It was apolitical,” NCP leader Majeed Memon said.

Memon said all like-minded parties had been invited to discuss the challenges confronting the country, including unemployment, “attack” on institutions, Covid “mismanagement” and petrol and diesel price rise. “We had called some Congress leaders too,” Memon said.

Also in attendance were former JDU leader Pawan Verma, KTS Tulsi, lyricist Javed Akhtar, among several intellectuals.

Verma also said the Rashtra Manch had been holding open-ended “apolitical discussions” on a range of issues since it was founded. The meeting at Pawar’s residence has triggered talks of a possible realignment of opposition forces ahead of 2024 General Election.

The meeting came a day after Pawar met poll strategist Prashant Kishor here. Earlier today, the NCP national executive also met at Pawar’s house to discuss various issues and party policies.