Anti-Modi front main course at Sonia's dinner for Opposition leaders

Leaders of 19 Opposition parties attended a dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday where anti-Narendra Modi alliance was the main course for discussions.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, RJD leaders Tejaswi Yadav and Misa Bharti, DMK leader Kanimozhi, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP leader S C Mishra were among the prominent leaders who attended the meeting.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi was seen chatting with Pawar as Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel looked on. Also present at the Congress camp were Ghulam Nabi Azad, A K Antony and Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Among the notable absentees were West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BSP supremo Mayawati and CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Mamata sent her representative Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, while Yechury sent polit bureau member Mohammad Salim to Sonia's dinner meeting.

"This dinner should not be seen from the prism of politics, it was for friendship and better dialogue between parties," Randeep Singh Surjewala, chief Congress spokesperson, told reporters here.

Last week, Sonia had asked Opposition leaders to sink differences at the local level and come together to defeat the Narendra Modi-led BJP.

Third front

The dinner meeting also comes against the backdrop of attempts by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to form a non-BJP, non-Congress third front, an initiative that has been welcomed by the Trinamool Congress and some other regional parties.

A Congress leader said there is a lot of anxiety among regional outfits due to the muscle-flexing by the BJP in the aftermath of its electoral successes in the North-East, and that the initiative by Sonia would help in keeping the Opposition flock together.

Sonia had admitted to pressures that various political parties, including the Congress, face when it came to working with like-minded parties.