Pawar meets Rahul, Kharge

Pune: Veteran Maharashtra politician Sharad Pawar met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday evening amid efforts by the country's splintered opposition to band together ahead of next year's national elections.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief met the Congress leaders at Kharge's home in Delhi, where they were expected to discuss strategies to unify the opposition.

Efforts by some opposition parties to forge an alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party have begun over the past few days, with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut claimed that Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar told him that there was pressure on NCP MLAs from central agencies to switch loyalties.

The MLAs are being threatened with arrest otherwise, he quoted the NCP chief as saying.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said people of the country want change of power, but evaded a direct reply on whether his party would join an opposition alliance to take on the BJP.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said efforts for opposition unity have picked up the pace ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and seat adjustments will be made at the state level. Speaking to the media after meeting Nitish here, Yechury indicated that a third front was a possibility. "Efforts for opposition unity have picked up the pace. An opposition coalition will be formed and seat adjustments will be done at the state level," the CPM general secretary said.

"In Kerala, Congress and our party are arch rivals. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not in a fight there," he said. He further said that the third front that is going to be formed will always be after the elections. "But in India, fronts are formed post polls such as United Front in 1996, in 1998 NDA was formed after elections, UPA formed post polls in 2004," Yechury said.

The BJP called Kejriwal the "Natwarlal of Indian politics" and took a jibe at his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar over his efforts to forge opposition unity, saying everyone wants to be a prime minister but the post is reserved for Narendra Modi in 2024