A bigger show of strength was seen on the lawns of 7, Tughlak Road, the residence of JD(U) president Sharad Yadav on Monday.
Days after the release of Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) leader Sharad Pawar’s autobiography on the occasion of his 75th
birthday saw a galaxy of leaders gathering at Vigyan Bhawan, an even
bigger show of strength was seen on the lawns of 7, Tughlak Road, the
residence of JD(U) president Sharad Yadav on Monday.
Leaders
ranging from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad
to Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal to Union Ministers
M. Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh and Mukthar Abbas Naqvi to BJP veterans
L.K. Advani and Yashwant Sinha to CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram
Yechury, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien and Samajwadi Party boss
Mulayam Singh Yadav, were all there to felicitate Mr Yadav as a book
based on his life was released by Vice-President Hamid Ansari.
Coming
close on the heels of the massive victory of the JD(U)-led Grand
Alliance in Bihar, the occasion provided fodder for speculation about
the possibility of further political collaboration in the string of
assembly elections in the coming months. Indeed, the JD(U), though
confined to Bihar, has been trying to play a mediatory role in trying to
ensure a degree of opposition unity to take the BJP on across the
country.
If the cynosure of all eyes were the two
chief ministers — Mr. Kumar for his triumph in Bihar and Mr Kejriwal for
taking on the government — Ms Gandhi, accompanied by several party MPs,
decided to stay back for the lunch that was laid out on the lawns — a
decision that was a political statement by itself.
The
gathering despite its high VVIP quotient was a friendly, egalitarian
one with minimum security, with even JD(U) party workers present in
large numbers milling around, all partaking of the same meal — quite
unlike the stiff formality of the event at Vigyan Bhawan. The speeches
were minimal, with much bonhomie on display.
A subsidiary political statement was made when Mr. Yashwant Sinha — seen as a BJP dissident — greeted Mr Kumar with a warm hug.
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