Sonia Gandhi’s attack on BJP; who all will attend the dinner party?

People meet over a dinner or for lunch and discuss either their business plans or friends catch up on their gossips.

So has Sonia Gandhi.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has invited leaders of all the opposition parties for a dinner on Tuesday in a fresh bid to forge a united front against the ruling BJP.

READ ALSO: Nitin Gadkari hits back at Sonia Gandhi after her remarks against BJP

WHO WILL ATTEND?

Former chief minister of Bihar and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi will join the dinner hosted for the Opposition parties by Sonia Gandhi on March 13.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel invited Manjhi to join the dinner hosted in the National Capital.

Manjhi recently broke away from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led grand alliance.

The dinner comes in the light of the of the Opposition parties joining hands to attack the government in the Parliament.

According to reports, Gandhi has also invited DMK working president M.K. Stalin, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and members of various parties from different states, who are not part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

 Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is yet to confirm her acceptance. Banerjee has spoken to Rao and DMK working president MK Stalin for coordination inside and outside Parliament.

READ ALSO: People’s freedom “under systematic and sustained assault”: Sonia Gandhi

WHO WILL NOT ATTEND?

The Telugu Desam (TD) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) did not get any invitation till Saturday for the much-hyped dinner to be hosted by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. 

Sonia Gandhi has decided to host dinner to all Opposition parties on March 13 in Delhi. In fact, TD and TRS leaders were not expecting an invitation from the Congress to the dinner. The TD in Andhra Pradesh and TRS in Telangana are arch rivals of the Congress. Both have decided not to attend the dinner even if they receive an invitation.

 “I don’t think the Congress will extend an invitation to the TRS. We are also not expecting an invitation from the Congress,” TRS MP A.P. Jitender Reddy said. 

Speaking to a news agency, he said that if at all Congress invites them to the dinner, they will not attend. Meanwhile, TD MP C.M. Ramesh said that they did not receive any invitation from the Congress for the dinner.

Sonia Gandhi’s invitation comes at a time when talk of a non-BJP, non-Congress front is doing the rounds following a proposal by TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for a national consultation process on the matter.