Mulayam, Left biggies skip Sonia iftar party

Pertinent was the presence of Janata Dal (United) head and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who sat next to Sonia on the dinner table at Ashoka Hotel. Flanked on the side of her was Trinamool Congress leader  Derek O’Brien, who had been sent by his party chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee as a representative, as she was unable to attend the iftar. 

The glaring absence of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and any representative from the <g data-gr-id="31">Left,</g> was also felt at the event. Also present were DMK leader Kanimozhi, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar and BSP leader SC Mishra. RJD Chief Lalu Yadav was <g data-gr-id="30">absent</g> but Prem Chand <g data-gr-id="42">Guptaand</g> Jai Prakash Narain Yadav from his party attended the iftar. RJD chief Lalu Prasad and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee were unable to attend the <g data-gr-id="43">iftaar</g> dinner due to prior commitments.

Even though this iftar was seen as a precursor to the collective Opposition coming together to <g data-gr-id="38">strategise</g> against the Narendra Modi government, for the upcoming Monsoon Session, the absence of leaders from two important factions -- Samajwadi Party and the Left -- was very evident. ‘ If this government is going to brazen it out on issues related to <g data-gr-id="39">imprprity</g> and corruption, of <g data-gr-id="46">course</g> we will raise it in Parliament,’ said Congress leader and Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma. Also seen at the iftar was d Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit who sat with former Commerce minister Anand Sharma’s table.

Congress Vice-president Rahul <g data-gr-id="53">Gandhi when asked about the upcoming Monsoon session</g> said and PM Narendra Modi’s silence said, ‘I will speak on corruption, don’t know about the PM .’ Three main tables which had the power centres of the Congress - Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh -- seated on three different tables. Apart from Nitish, Derek and The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar were seated on Sonia’s table. Meanwhile, Rahul had National Conferene chief Omar Abdullah seated with him and also DMK leader Kanimozhi seated on the same table. <g data-gr-id="96">Lastly</g> Manmohan Singh’s table had Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader SC Mishra and Congress veterans – AK Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad.

 Also seen at the iftar were several Congress leaders and their state Chief Ministers including - Assam CM Tarun <g data-gr-id="97">Gogoi,Uttarakhand</g> CM Harish Rawat, former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit, former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot amongst others. Also seen were Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Raj Babbar, Ajay Maken, P Chidambaram, V Moily, Salman <g data-gr-id="28">Khurshid ,</g> CP Joshi, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kamal <g data-gr-id="104">Nath,Sushil</g> Kumar Shinde and Jairam Ramesh.