Building broad-based strategy to fight Covid-19 : PM Modi reaches out to Opposition

New Delhi: As the coronavirus challenge is getting bigger with each passing day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday widened the ambit of political discussions three days before his scheduled interaction with floor leaders of all political parties in Parliament.

The Prime Minister reached out to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, two former Presidents and two former prime ministers to discuss country's response to the unprecedented crisis over coronavirus outbreak, according to sources.

Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil are the two former Presidents to have received a call from the Prime Minister, while Manmohan Singh of the Congress and Deve Gowda of the JD(S) are the two former prime ministers to have been approached over the phone, said the officials.

The details of the consultations were not known immediately but were said to be in line with the government's efforts to evolve a broad-based consensus on efforts to fight Covid-19 through a combined containment strategy.

Modi is scheduled to also consult leaders of major political parties represented in Parliament in an all-party meeting to be held over video conference on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister is also said to have called up Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, DMK chief MK Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal.

The all-party meeting comes at a time when India is completing 11 days of the 21-day lockdown announced to disrupt the chain of infections and amid the PM's appeal to states to give suggestions for a phased exit from the lockdown to mitigate against the huge economic losses while preventing a spike in infections.

The Prime Minister has often said that dealing with the coronavirus pandemic will require a united response from the country and has also held a few rounds of meetings with the Chief Ministers of the states, several of them ruled by the Opposition parties.