Team News Riveting
New Delhi, June 22
Leaders of opposition parties barring Congress assembled at the NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence here on Tuesday, held discussions but did not disclose the agenda.
Though the development hinted at forming a front against the BJP, but the leaders played cards close to the chest. They categorically denied any political colour to the meeting that was attended by the representatives of TMC, SP, AAP, RLD and the Left parties.
Former finance minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Yashwant Sinha, Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Ghanshyam Tiwari, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary, Sushil Gupta from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Binoy Viswam from the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Nilotpal Basu from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) attended the meeting. It was held under the banner of Rashtra Manch and was convened by its chief Yashwant Sinha.
Sinha formed the Rashtra Manch, a political action group, in 2018 that targeted the BJP-led government’s policies.
National Conference (NC) leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, former Congress leader Sanjay Jha and former Janata Dal (United) leader Pavan Verma also came to participate in the meeting. Other prominent personalities who arrived at Pawar’s residence to attend the meeting were Justice A P Shah, Javed Akhtar and KC Singh.
The suspense was over the Congress party. While there were reports that it was not invited, Congress leaders from the Group of 23 (G23) were called. They included Manish Tewari, Kapil Sibal, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Shatrughan Sinha. However, none turned up.
Denying that the meeting took up any political discussions, NCP leader Majeed Memon said, “This meeting was called by Rashtra Manch chief Yashwant Sinha and convened with the help of all founding members and workers of Rashtra Manch. This is being said that Sharad Pawar sahab is taking a big political step and Congress has been boycotted. This is incorrect.”
