Sagar Kulkarni, DH News Service, New Delhi, Aug 11 2017, 21:47 IST
NCP leader Praful Patel said his party decided to boycott the meeting as the Congress was accusing it of not supporting the Ahmed Patel when its legislators had cast their votes in his favour. PTI File Photo
The much-talked opposition unity faced a minor setback on Friday with NCP staying away from a meeting of leaders of non-BJP parties convened by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury walking out after a token presence.
Leaders of 16 opposition parties, including Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee, Yechury, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, RJD's JPN Yadav, CPI's D Raja, SP's Naresh Agarwal, RLD's Ajit Singh among others met here to chalk out the joint opposition programme for the next three months.
JD(U) MP Ali Anwar Ansari also attended the meeting as the representative of rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, whom Gandhi had called on Thursday with an invitation to attend Friday's meeting. Within hours of Ansari marking his presence at the meeting, the JD(U) suspended him from the parliamentary party.
NCP is upset at the Congress accusing it of not supporting Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat. NCP leader Praful Patel said his party decided to boycott the meeting as the Congress was accusing it of not supporting the Ahmed Patel when its legislators had cast their votes in his favour.
“We are not beholden to the Congress. We are contesting the Gujarat elections separately, still we voted for them in the RS polls. And what we get in return is accusations,” Patel said.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad sought to play down the episode saying he had spoken to NCP supremo Sharad Pawar who has been keeping ill-health for the past 4-5 days.
“You are talking of two parties and not talking about the 16 parties who attended the meeting,” he said. Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose K Mani also skipped the meeting as he had a party function in Kerala.
Yechury also walked out of the meeting saying the CPI(M) has decided to launch an independent peoples' struggle on twin issues of agrarian crisis and unemployment to build a popular alternative narrative to the propaganda unleashed bu the Modi-led BJP.
Asked if he believed that the Modi-led BJP can be defeated by a united opposition, the CPI(M) General Secretary said: “Defeating is later, first let us build an alternate narrative.”
Azad said the leaders decided to form a small coordination committee that would talk to all parties and chalk out a common programme for the next three months.