Sharad Pawar's party was a no-show today at the meeting of the opposition called by Sonia Gandhi. Mr Pawar had earlier confirmed that he would depute a representative to the session. His turnaround comes after Mrs Gandhi's party, the Congress, suggested that he had betrayed it in the recent Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat. The anti-BJP front, already seriously dented by the exit of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last month, now appears to have shrunk from 18 to 16 members.
Leaders of opposition parties met in New Delhi today.
Mrs Gandhi's political aide, Ahmed Patel, had one vote less than what he needed to be re-elected to the Rajya Sabha for a fifth term. Mr Pawar's NCP claimed that it supplied the winning vote. But so did the lone Gujarat lawmaker from the Bihar Chief Minister's party, which meant he defied his boss' instructions.
Yesterday, talking exclusively to NDTV, Mr Patel said, "Who voted for me is suspense", implying that he was not convinced of Mr Pawar's claim.
Congress members have accused the NCP of not backing Ahmed Patel in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls.
The league was formed in April, partly on the insistence of the Bihar Chief Minister; it includes the Left and Mamata Banerjee and is pivoted by the Congress. But in June, Mr Kumar whacked it out of shape by supporting the BJP's Ram Nath Kovind's ascension to President of India. About a month later, the Chief Minister formalised his exit from the 18-party group by ending his alliance in Bihar with Lalu Yadav and the Congress; within an hour of calling it off, he was newly-hitched to the BJP, with whom he now runs the government.
Though Anwar Ali of his party was present at today's session, he is seen as part of the much smaller camp of Sharad Yadav, who is prepping to split from Mr Kumar over his new arrangement with the BJP.
But with Mr Kumar's crossover and Mr Pawar looking flaky, the league appears to be running low on gas ahead of crucial elections in states like Gujarat.
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