No attempt to isolate Congress: Leaders after attending 'Rashtra Manch' meeting chaired by Sharad Pawar

The pressing need for an "alternate vision" in India was the central theme of a two and half-hour-long huddle in Delhi, held at the residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar under the auspices of 'Rashtra Manch' headed by Trinamool Congress vice president Yashwant Sinha.

The meeting came amid a growing chorus in the Opposition camp to put up a united fight against the NDA in the upcoming polls.

The meeting decided to set up a committee headed by Sinha and featuring political leaders as well representatives of other walks of life to give people an "alternate vision".

After the meeting, the leaders tried to downplay its importance, seeking to give it a 'larger than politics' image and also cited the attendance of many people from outside politics. The leaders of the regional parties, who attended the meeting, were at pains to explain that this is an attempt to form a front minus Congress.

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Among the nearly two dozen participants, more than a dozen were political leaders including the president of a party, the vice president of another, both sitting and former MPs. Some non-political people were also there, critical of the BJP.

While the meeting was not attended by Congress or some of its coalition partners like JMM (Jharkhand), DMK (Tamil Nadu) and Shiv Sena (Maharashtra), Ghanshyam Tiwari of Samajwadi Party, Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, Omar Abdullah of National Conference, Binoy Viswam of the CPI and Sushil Gupta of AAP attended the event.

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The meeting took place nine months before the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls as well as elections in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa next year, which is being considered a semi-final of sorts before the 2024 general elections.

Former Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha (suspended from the party) told DH that the meeting discussed India's current political scenario and the need to give the people an alternative voice.

Sources said that speakers in the meeting rued that the Opposition is not being able to articulate an effective counter-ideological point to BJP's ideology, while the future is about the battle of ideology.

Lyricist and former Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar, who attended the meeting, cautioned against keeping the activities just confined to television debates and preparing documents and underlined the need to involve people.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, who had in past acted as a strategist for BJP when L K Advani was in the party and had also been with CPI-M at the beginning of his political career is learnt to have emphasized the need to draft the main Opposition party Congress into such plans, a source said. A leader said, "Congress has to be the fulcrum".

Briefing reporters after the meeting, former Rajya Sabha MP of NCP Majeed Memon explained that there was "no attempt to isolate Congress from the political point of view or exclude it".

"I invited at least five Congress leaders--Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha (members of G-23 in Congress) Abhishek Singhvi and Shatrughan Sinha. There are reports in the media suggesting that this meeting called by Pawar Sahab is boycotting Congress or a big alliance is being formed isolating Congress. There is no such thing," said Memon after the meeting.

He also said that the meeting was "not any political programme" and projecting it as one is wrong.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ghanshyam Tiwari hit out at NDA dispensation at the Centre, saying "the meeting stressed that a deficit of vision in this young country cannot be allowed only because the present government is against any kind of vision."

Sources said Sinha and Pawar did not talk much in the meeting and preferred to listen to the participants. After the meeting, Sinha merely said, "The meeting continued for two and half hours during which several issues were discussed."

Earlier, Pawar held a meeting with his party leaders to decide the course of NCP's actions in the future polls. On Monday, Pawar held a meeting with poll strategist Prashant Kishor.

In March, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to leaders of 15 anti-BJP parties, including the Congress, seeking a more united fight against the saffron party, a stand which she has maintained even after winning the state for a third consecutive term.

That the meeting was convened by Trinamool Congress vice president Sinha and chaired by NCP boss Pawar, who many believe could be a magnet of Opposition unity, indicates the political significance of the event.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had on Monday said that Pawar would work from Tuesday to unite all Opposition parties and the meeting chaired by him would also dwell on the political situation in India.