Pawar meets poll strategist Prashant Kishor, calls meeting of Opposition leaders on Tuesday

New Delhi, June 21 

Ahead of Prime Minister’s meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, opposition leaders in Delhi are scheduled to hold a meet at Sharad Pawar’s residence on Tuesday at 4 pm.

Before this meeting, Sharad Pawar met poll strategist Prashant Kishor, the second time in ten days. The buzz is that Kishor-Pawar meet may be a part of larger scheme of things in view of the next general elections and aimed at uniting like-minded parties.

Though the agenda for the opposition parties meet is unclear, but it’s in the backdrop of the Prime Minister’s meeting on J&K. The invitation has been extended to 15 opposition parties, but a few of them so far have confirmed participation. The Congress is not yet said yes to the meet.

It would be interesting to see whether Congress will attend the meet or not. Till the afternoon on Monday, there was no confirmation from the Congress but 7 parties have confirmed participation in the meet.

The NCP has called a meeting of its own national office bearers on Tuesday morning, ahead of the opposition parties meeting.

Kishor, who was instrumental in the Trinamool Congress’ victory in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, had also met Pawar on June 11, fuelling the talk of opposition parties coming together against the BJP.

According to sources, former finance minister and now a TMC leader Yashwant Sinha, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh are also expected to call on Pawar on Tuesday.

Kishor, who had been part of the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, later became a poll strategist for several non-NDA parties.

He had handled the poll strategy of the TMC in the West Bengal Assembly polls and for the DMK in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections this year. He had also been a poll strategist for the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alliance in the 2015 Bihar assembly polls. — Agencies