NCP plays down opposition meet, says convened by Rashtra Manch

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) After representatives of various opposition parties met at Sharad Pawar's house here for over two and a half hours on Tuesday, his NCP said that the meeting was not called by the party supremo but the Rashtra Manch of former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha.NCP's former Rajya Sabha member Majeed Memon said that "speculation is in media that Sharad Pawar has called the meet, which is not correct".He said this meeting was called by the Rashtra Manch and was only organised at the residence of Pawar.Memon also dismissed as a "wrong perception" that it was an opposition meet, excluding the Congress, or a 'third front' meet.He rejected claims that Pawar is "taking a big political step" and that is why Congress has boycotted it, saying Congress leaders like Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, Manish Tewari and Shatrughan Sinha were invited but expressed their difficulty in making it.Leaders of several parties including Trinamool Congress' Sinha, Samajwadi Party's Ghanshyam Tiwari, Rashtriya Lok Dal President Jayant Chaudhary, Aam Aadmi Party's Sushil Gupta, CPI-M's Nilotpal Basu, CPI's Binoy Viswam, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, former Congress leader Sanjay Jha and former JD-U leader Pavan Verma were present.Other prominent personalities like Justice A.P. Shah, Javed Akhtar and former diplomat K.C. Singh also attended.
--IANS aks/miz/vd