Sharad Pawar to start national opposition unity moves from Tuesday

Mumbai/New Delhi: In a major initiative, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar will kick off moves for opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Tuesday, a top party official said on Monday.

NCP national spokesperson and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said that in the first round, Pawar will meet leaders of a few political parties and other prominent experts from different fields at his New Delhi home on Tuesday evening.

The political leaders could include Yashwant Sinha of the Trinamool Congress, former JD-U leader Pawan Verma, Sanjay Singh of the the Aam Aadmi Party, Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, D. Raja of the CPI and others.

Besides, prominent personalities like Justice A.P. Singh (retd), Javed Akhtar, K.T.S. Tulsi, Karan Thapar, Ashutosh, A. Majeed Memon, Vandana Chavan, MP, S.Y. Qureshi, K.C. Singh, Sanjay Jha, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Colin Gonsalves, Ghanshyam Tiwari and Pritish Nandy, among others.

Before this meeting, Sharad Pawar had met poll strategist Prashant Kishor, second time in ten days. The buzz is that Kishor-Pawar meet may be a part of larger scheme of things in view of next general elections and aimed at uniting like-minded parties.

The invitation had been extended to 15 opposition parties, but a few of them so far have confirmed participation. The Congress has not yet said yes to the meet.