"Wasn't Political," Stated the NCP After the 8 Parties Meeting At Sharad Pawar's Residence

Party Meet at Sharad Pawar’s house…Get the details…

Wednesday, 23rd June 2021

A meet held on this Tuesday at the residence of seasoned politician Sharad Pawar, which attracted outsized spotlights over the reports of a sort of Third Front activities prior to the elections of 2024, featured the 8 political parties including the Trinamool Congress Party of Mamata Bannerjee, Aam Aadmi Party  (AAP) of Arvind Kejriwal and also the Left. The Congress party was however missing.

Yashwant Sinha, the Ex-Union Minister stated that he had asked Mr. Sharad Pawar to host the meet of Rashtra Manch in order to "debate current events".

"The meeting was called by Yashwant Sinha, not Sharad Pawar, this was not a political meet," stated Majeed Memon, a prominent leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and also Rashtra Manch’s founding member. For NCP, excluding the Congress Party, its political ally in the state of Maharashtra, would actually be awkward.

 "There are talks that the meeting was for a third front without the Congress, which is not the truth. There is no discrimination. We called all like-minded people. We also invited Congress leaders. I called Vivek Tanha, Manish Tiwari, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Shatrughan Sinha for the meeting. They couldn't come. It's not true that we didn't invite Congress," Mr. Memon answered most assertively, when the reporters asked him why the Congress party was MIA at the opposition parties’ gathering.

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Omar Abdullah; a notable National Conference leader, Jayant Choudhary of RLD, Ghanshyam Tiwari of the Samajwadi Party; Sushil Gupta, an AAP leader, Binoy Viswam of CPI and Nilotpal Basu of CPM were among all those who took part in the meeting."It was not political meeting but an interaction among like-minded people. Issues like Covid management, 'attack' on institutions and unemployment were discussed," said Nilotpal Basu to the reporters.

Others who attended the meet were retired Veteran Justice AP Shah, Ex-Ambassador KC Singh and the famed lyricist Javed Akhtar. Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, Ex-chief election commissioner SY Qureshi and another senior advocate Colin Gonsalves failed to attend the meet.

While none of the Congress leaders appeared, senior leader as well as Ex-Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath met Mr. Sharad Pawar out of meeting, separately.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader when asked about the meet and about the possible initiatives to create a Third Political Front, stated that it was actually not the apt time for political discussions. During a virtual media conference regarding the Covid White Paper of his party, Mr Gandhi clearly pointed out that he wished to cast his focus on the situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic and what measures need to be adopted to protect the country and its people from the pandemic’s potential third wave.

With Mr Sharad Pawar, one of most seasoned politicians of the country and a significantly adept negotiator, playing the host, the meet was presented by many as the basic steps taken towards constructing an opposition political front to take on the PM, Narendra Modi Ji and BJP political party in the year 2024’s National election.

However, those who were associated with this event made it clear that the meet had nothing to do with Third Front formation.

"Yashwant Sinha heads the Rashtra Manch. He asked to meet with Mr Pawar. So the meeting is an initiative of the Rashtra Manch," said Praful Patel, a NCP leader.

Sources that were close to Sharad Pawar stated that neither he nor the party he represents had given out any sort invitation. "This is a highly overrated and speculative meeting," they stated.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV