New Delhi:
Sonia Gandhi didn't make any political statement at the annual Iftar hosted by her but her Congress party certainly hopes the event sent the right signals about Opposition unity.
The seating arrangement was carefully done and the Congress president shared space with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Derek O'Brien, who filled in for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party was represented by senior leader Satish Chandra Mishra.
But the Congress' effort to put up a display of picture perfect Opposition unity seemed to suffer a setback as the senior-most leader from the Janata Parivar and Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav stayed away. He did not send any representative either.
CPM chief Sitaram Yechury, who had to leave for UK, skipped the meet too. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad sent his aide Prem Chand Gupta, as he held his own Iftar in Patna the same evening.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who occupied a table next to his mother, too, avoided any political talk. He was mostly engaged in a conversation with his friend and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.
But interacting informally with journalists, Mr Gandhi did make it clear that he would speak on the issue of corruption in the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins July 21.
Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit, who was present, had to field a battery of questions from journalists.
While he refused to answer on Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz's comments, he did offer an explanation on inviting Kashmiri separatists for Eid to the Pakistan High Commission. "It is nothing unusual. We have invited more than 300 guests and it is not exclusive for Kashmiris," Mr Basit told NDTV.
Asked what he made of the Modi government's efforts to restart formal talks with Pakistan, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said, "Talks are a good but I don't know the content... There are conflicting reports and I don't want to comment."