Received No Invite For Opposition Meet, Claims AAP

Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party today said they have received no invitation for today's mega opposition meeting -- a claim leaders in the Congress contested saying they were initially invited for earlier meetings but they decided to stay away and hence we did not send any invitation. AAP, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party are the three prominent members of the opposition who will skip the meeting, where discussions are expected to involve a range of issues, including the Centre's economic package, its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the situation of the migrants.

"The Aam Aadmi Party will not take part in video conference meeting of opposition parties called by Congress President Sonia Gandhi tomorrow," the party's senior leader Sanjay Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI this evening.

In the past, all three parties that are skipping the opposition meeting had political issues with the Congress.

For AAP, the renewed clash with the Congress had started ahead of last year's Lok Sabha elections.

Though the opposition was planning a united front against the BJP, talks of seat sharing between AAP and the Congress fell through as the local leaders of the Congress put the party's interest in the state elections first.

In the Delhi assembly elections held earlier this year, the Congress was decimated again. AAP won 62 of Delhi's 70 seats, the BJP 8, a shade higher that its 2015 score of three seats.

Those in the ruling NDA now even claim there is a slight softness in the three opposition party's approach towards the BJP.

Over the last years, Arvind Kejriwal, known to be an arch critic of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had desisted from direct attacks on the Prime Minister.

The Congress sources said those expected to attend tomorrow's meeting include West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Maharashtra counterpart Udhav Thackeray and Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren, DMK chief MK Stalin, nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar, the Left parties and other UPA partners.

Several invitees, including Ms Banerjee and the Left parties had communicated their acceptance early on. For Uddhav Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena was a BJP ally for 35 years, this would be the first meeting with the united opposition.