India: Sharad Pawar working to unite Opposition

Sharad Pawar

Mumbai, Jun 21 (PTI) NCP chief Sharad Pawar is working to unite all opposition leaders, party spokesperson Nawab Malik said while commenting on a meeting between Pawar and political strategist Prashant Kishor in New Delhi, their second one-on-one interaction this month, on Monday on the eve of the NCP's national executive meet.

Malik also said Pawar will host political leaders and eminent persons from different sections of society at his residence in New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the "current scenario in the country".

When asked about the meeting held between Pawar and Kishor, Malik said, "Pawar is working to unite all opposition leaders. Maybe, the meeting was to discuss it. The party's national executive meeting is also taking place in the national capital tomorrow."

The closed-door discussions between Kishor and Pawar at the latter's residence in the national capital lasted for about one-and-a-half hours amid speculation of the formation of a Third Front to take on the BJP.

Malik tweeted: "Prominent political leaders and eminent persons from different sections of the society will attend the meeting at Pawar's residence in Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the current scenario in the country".

"Yashwant Sinha, Pawan Verma, Sanjay Singh, D Raja, Farooq Abdullah, Vandana Chavan, Justice A P Singh, Javed Akhtar, K T S Tulsi, Karan Thapar, Ashutosh, advocate Majeed Memon, former chief election commissioner S Y Qureshi, K C Singh, Sanjay Jha, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Colin Gonsalves, Arun Kumar Economist, Ghanshyam Tiwari and Pritish Nandi will attend the meeting," Malik tweeted.

The NCP currently shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra.

Earlier, Kishor called on Pawar at the latter's residence in Mumbai on June 11 when the two held talks for around three hours, setting tongues wagging in political circles.

Kishor had helped craft the election strategy for the DMK and the TMC in the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively.

After these two parties emerged victorious in the polls held earlier this year, the election strategist had said he was "quitting this space".