Opposition leaders, Prashant Kishor meet Sharad Pawar, third time in 2 weeks
The series of meetings between the poll strategist, opposition leaders have fuelled speculations of the NCP trying to create an alliance of Opposition parties to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor met National Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Wednesday, a day after leaders of eight opposition parties gathered at Pawar’s residence and discussed various issues facing the country.
According to sources, the closed-door discussions between Kishor and Pawar, held at the latter’s residence in Delhi, lasted for about an hour.
Kishor has been instrumental in helping the DMK and the Trinamool Congress win the recently concluded Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively.
Meanwhile, Pawar on Tuesday hosted a meeting of the leaders of eight Opposition parties including the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Left at his residence in Delhi.
Former Congress leader Sanjay Jha and Janta Dal-United’s (JD-U) ex-leader Pavan Verma also participated in the meeting. Besides politicians, several eminent personalities such as Javed Akhtar, former ambassador KC Singh and Justice (retd) A P Shah were also present at Tuesday’s meeting.
However, leaders who took part in that discussions asserted that it was a “non-political” meeting of like-minded individuals by Rashtriya Manch that was floated by former finance minister and TMC vice-president Yashwant Sinha along with others.
While talk of a third front has been recurrent; the key difference this time is that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, one of the sharpest and most experienced leaders in Indian politics, is being seen as playing a role.
