Among those Gandhi has invited, and are expected to attend the meeting, include Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu chief Minister MK Stalin, Shiv Sena pramukh and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, NCP boss Sharad Pawar, JMM leader and Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren.
The guest list also included Sitaram Yechury (CPM), D Raja(CPI) and the leaders of Samajwadi Party, besides UDF allies and parties of the ruling LDF in Kerala. Most of these parties were part of a group of 14 that coordinated during the Parliament session.
Three Congress CMs – Ashok Gehlot, Captain Amarinder Singh, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh – and some AICC functionaries are expected to flank Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi. It is too early to say whether SP and AAP, as well as the BSP, will attend the meeting.
Though designed as part of the Congress president’s efforts to rally Opposition unity efforts, its timing can also be seen in the context of the recent mega meeting of many Congress change-seekers and Opposition leaders at the residence of Kapil Sibal. That was the first ever major anti-BJP Opposition gathering without the presence of the Gandhis.
The emergence of the Mamata-Pawar axis as a networking force across the Opposition turf has given the Congress and the Gandhis serious competition in their traditional role as anti-BJP fulcrum. The fact that even traditional turf rivals of the Congress – BJD, YSRCP and Akali
– attended Sibal’s dinner gave this added dimension.
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