Congress’ change seekers, opposition brass discuss unity at Sibal’s dinner party

Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday night showcased his reach across the opposition galaxy by getting leaders of various political parties together over dinner, where they pondered on the need for a larger opposition unity against the BJP for 2024 Lok Sabha elections, if not for the UP assembly polls early next year. The occasion coincided with the completion of a year since Congress’ change seekers wrote a joint letter to Sonia Gandhi last August.

Sharad Pawar (NCP), Lalu Prasad (RJD), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool), T Shiva (DMK), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (NC) and nominees of YSRCP, TDP, RLD and AAP attended the dinner hosted by Sibal, one of the Congress change seekers. BSP representative wasn’t present at the dinner meet.

Among the Congress attendees were P Chidambaram and a group of change seekers including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, BS Hooda, Mukul Wasnik, Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Shashi Tharoor and Sandeep Dikshit.

Although Sibal didn’t comment on the dinner meet, the purpose of the get-together was to start the process of dialogue for a larger anti-BJP unity. Everybody present there, including the Congressmen, lamented how the Congress leadership’s inability to put its house in order was proving to be a spoiler in the effort.