Modi speaks to Sonia, Mamata, MMS & Pranab

As positive coronavirus cases increased rapidly across India and the death count grew in the past two days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to leaders across the political spectrum on Sunday, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Trinamul boss Mamata Banerjee, as well as predecessor Manmohan Singh and several chief ministers, on ways to handle the crisis facing the country.

Sources said Mr Modi called up Dr Manmohan Singh, an economist of international repute, and spoke to him at length on the ongoing situation and how it could be handled once the lockdown is eased in a phased way after April 14.

It is, however, not known if the sluggish economic scenario, which has further been adversely affected by the lockdown, was discussed between the two leaders.

Besides Mrs Gandhi and Ms Mamata

Banerjee, the Prime Minister also spoke to several other party leaders, including Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav, SP president, besides Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao, DMK president M.K. Stalin and Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal. He also spoke to former PM H.D. deve Gowda of the JD(S) and former President Pratibha Patil.

The exercise is seen as an effort to build a political consensus on how to handle the overall socioeconomic conditions after the lockdown. On April 8, the PM plans to interact with the floor leaders of various political parties through a video link.

The Trinamul Congress has said it will not attend this virtual meeting.