‘Many issues were discussed’, says Yashwant Sinha as Opposition leaders meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Delhi

Pawar decided to convene the meeting shortly after his long meeting with political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday.

• BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi took a dig at the Opposition parties and said that no one “can stop them from daydreaming”
• Union Minister Ramdas Athawale claimed that no matter how many parallel fronts are formed against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “he will remain number one”

New Delhi: The all-party meeting called by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar concluded after 2.5 hours at his New Delhi residence on Tuesday where he met leaders from several political parties to discuss the current situation in the country.

“It is a platform of all secular, democratic Left forces against a most hated govt that has failed. The country needs a change. The people are up for a change,” CPI MP Binoy Viswam said ahead of the meeting.

TMC leader Yashwant Sinha, lyricist Javed Akhtar, Rashtriya Lokdal President Jayant Chaudhary and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah were among those who met the NCP chief.

Pawar decided to convene the meeting shortly after his long meeting with political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday. This was the NCP supremo’s second meeting with the poll strategist in the past two weeks amid speculations of a joint opposition onslaught against the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 general elections.

Kishor had spearheaded the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, but later took several opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to resounding victories in their respective state polls.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi took a dig at the Opposition parties and said that no one “can stop them from daydreaming”.

“Such meetings are held by leaders who’ve repeatedly been rejected by the public. This is not new. There’re some companies that make profit out of polls. They’ll obviously try to project every other leader as next PM. No one can be stopped from daydreaming,” Lekhi said.

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale claimed that no matter how many parallel fronts are formed against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “he will remain number one”.

“No matter how many are being formed, it does not matter. And even if it is formed, then the Congress will do the work of harming its party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji’s leadership is very strong, even today he is the number one. We also have respect for Sharad Pawar Ji, he is also a well-known leader of Maharashtra and he has also done good work but today’s situation is that the NCP party is limited to Maharashtra. In other states outside Maharashtra, he does not have that much support,” Athawale said.