New Delhi, June 13 (UNI) The much talked about Iftar party hosted by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday saw presence of leaders of various like minded opposition parties like the BSP, the RJD, the DMK, the CPI-M, the JMM and others .
The Iftaar party, the first hosted by Rahul since he assumed the post of Congress president, was attended by former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former vice President Hamid Ansari and the entire whos who of the Congress party.
Though top opposition leaders like Mrs Mamta Banerjee of the All India Trinamol Congress, Mr Sharad pawar of the NCP , Mayawati of the BSP and Mr Akhilesh yadav of the Samajwadi perty did not attend the Iftaar party, their parties were represented by Mr Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool COngress), D P Tripathi (NCP) and Mr Satish chandra Misra of the BSP.
ALso present at the Iftaar, hosted by the Congress after a gap of two years , were rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, Mr Sitaram Yechury of the CPM, Mrs kanimoizhi of the DMK, Mr Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Mr Danish Ali of the JD-S Mr Hemant Soren of the JMM and Badruddin Ajmal of AIUDF.
However, no one from the National conference was present at the Iftaar.
In fact, Mr Gandhi was seated flanked by Mr Mukherjee and Ms Patil. besides Mr Dinesh Trivedi, Ms kanimozhi, Mr Sitaram Yechury and Mr Satish chandra Misra.
The CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Mr Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress were seen chatting intensely with Mr Gandhi. Mr Rahul Gandhi was also seen sharing notes with Mr Pranab Mukherjee at the Iftaar party.
Prominent among the Congress leaders present at the Iftaar were Leader of the Congres in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Union ministers P Chidambaram , A K Antony, Manish Tewari and Rajiv Shukla, Prithviraj Chavan, Shashi Tharoor and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit .
The Congress President's Iftar party also saw presence of Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay R Kudashev and other foreign delegates .
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi , however, was not present at the Iftaar owing to her ongoing treatment abroad. She will be back to India in a couple of days.
The Iftaar party by the Congress party us being seen as a platform for the various opposiiton parties like the CPM, the JD-S, the BSP, the RJD, the DMK and the All India Trinamool Congress which are looking to form a joint opposition front to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elecitons.
Iftar marks the customary ending of the daylong fast during the holy month of Ramzan
The last iftar hosted by the Congress was in 2015.
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