Cracks in Oppn unity as NCP stays away from Sonia meet
Cracks appeared in the Opposition unity on Friday as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar did not attend a meeting of all opposition parties convened by Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the Parliament House Annexe, while CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri walked out when the meeting was half way through.
The meeting authorised Sonia to constitute a small coordination committee for planning future programmes on agrarian distress and other issues. Everyone congratulated her political secretary Ahmed Patel for winning the Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat early this week despite all machinations of the BJP to defeat him.
Yechuri appears to be peeved by the importance given to West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. He is bound by the CPI(M) central committee directive to stop piggybacking on the Congress as he told reporters that what is required is an alternative people’s narrative, possible only through struggle, and his party would work for it independently while other parties are welcome to join.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad tried to play down absence of Sharad Pawar, saying he was not well and that is why he was not even coming to Parliament for the last three, four days. He refused to agree that Pawar’s NCP was a suspect in not voting for Ahmed Patel.
Whenever Pawar is not able to attend any opposition meeting, he sends one of his general secretaries -- Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar, but they too did not turn up. Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is touring Bihar but he was represented in the meeting by the party’s Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar.