New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI) NCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Thursday evening met Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and pledged to take forward opposition unity efforts and bring other parties together which are not part of the process.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was also be present at the meeting held at Kharge’s residence.
Welcoming Pawar, Kharge said “we are happy that he has come here directly from Mumbai and guided us.” “Yesterday we along with Rahul ji had talks with Nitish ji and Tejashwi ji that all parties should unite to save the country, democracy and protect the Constitution, besides ensuring freedom of speech and expression, providing employment to youth and checking inflation and misuse of autonomous bodies.
“We have decided to unite together and fight and we will talk to all the parties one after the other. Yesterday we met two parties and today Pawar sahib has come and we have decided that we will meet everyone, talk to them and move forward unitedly,” Kharge told reporters.
“I want that we should all work together in the nation’s interest and this is what Pawar sahib wants and said that all the like-minded parties should unite,” the Congress chief also said.
Pawar said all the parties have the same thinking, “but, mere thinking will not help and efforts should be made for unity”.
“There are some political parties who have similar ideologies, efforts should be made to bring them together and Kharge is the leader of opposition and he has made this effort which will benefit everyone. This is a beginning. After this, other opposition parties such as Mamata Banerjee’s TMC or Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP or other parties with whom talks have not taken place, efforts should be made to bring them together under this process for unity,” he said after the meeting.
Rahul Gandhi also said, “What Kharge ji and Pawar ji have said that this process of uniting the opposition has started. This is a beginning and all parties are committed towards this process.” Kharge later tweeted a picture with Pawar and Rahul Gandhi.
“Stronger, together! We stand united for a better, brighter and an equal future for our people. Along with Shri Rahul Gandhi ji met NCP President, Shri Sharad Pawar ji and had a discussion on the future course of action,” Kharge also tweeted.
Pawar, who returned from Maharashtra this evening, will hold further deliberations with other parties to bring opposition unity.
His meeting came a day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav met Kharge and Gandhi amid talks of like-minded opposition parties coming together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Pawar recently came out in support of industrialist Gautam Adani and stood in favour of the Supreme Court probe into the Adani issue instead of a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation, as demanded by several opposition parties. PTI SKC ZMN ZMN
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