NCP chief Pawar, TMC’s Yashwant Sinha to host Rashtra Manch meet in Delhi

The Congress, however, is not part of these meetings. The relationship between NCP and Congress has been a bit strained in the past few days after the Congress became vocal about wanting to fight the upcoming civic polls in Maharashtra by itself

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar will host a meeting of the coalition Rashtra Manch with Trinamool Congress’s Yashwant Sinha at his home in the national Capital on Tuesday. Confirming this, Sinha told Hindustan Times that the Rashtra Manch, a coalition that also involves non-politicians, was invited by Pawar to hold their first meeting in 15 months at Pawar’s residence.

NCP president and MP Sharad Pawar. (PTI)

“Majeed Memon is a member of our forum and he spoke to Pawar saheb, who asked us to come to his house. That’s all there is to it,” said Sinha. The meeting sparked off speculation as Pawar also held a meeting with election strategist Prashant Kishor Monday morning, the second such meeting in the last few days.

The Congress, however, is not part of these meetings. The relationship between the two allies has been a bit strained in the past few days after the Congress became vocal about wanting to fight the upcoming civic polls in Maharashtra by itself and not as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi or MVA alliance that’s ruling Maharashtra.

Last week, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said that his party would fight all the forthcoming elections alone.

“We already have announced that we will go solo in all forthcoming local body elections, likely to be held from November, and thereafter the Assembly polls too. We do not want to keep our allies in the dark and ditch them ahead of the polls. We are preparing to go solo and they too are free to do so. The Congress will be the single-largest party in 2024 Assembly polls,” he said.

There’s no word yet on what Pawar discussed with Kishor, whose firm I-Pac worked with the Shiv Sena in the run-up to the 2019 elections.