New Delhi: In a move aimed to strengthen Opposition unity, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi has written to all allies including non-UPA ones — namely the BJD, YSR Congress, TRS and TDP — inviting them for a meeting 23 May to discuss the road map for the future political course of action.
Sources reveal that the meeting is significant as the message sent out by Sonia Gandhi is that all UPA and non-UPA allies need to rally together after the poll verdict. While the UPA allies are already onboard, sources said special efforts have been made to bring in non-NDA entities like the BJD, YSR Congress and TRS for the proposed meeting.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is learnt to have personally spoken to his Odisha counterpart, Naveen Patnaik, requesting him to attend the 23 May meeting. This comes against the backdrop of Patnaik and Modi being complementary to each other and working in tandem over the State’s response to Cyclone Fani which has been appreciated widely, including by the United Nations.
The three parties – BJD, TRS and YSRCP – had won 20, 11 and 8 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Their total of 39 is bigger than any single party apart from the BJP and Congress which had won 282 and 44 seats respectively.