Dinner diplomacy was much in evidence on Tuesday night at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official residence where he hosted leaders of the United Progressive Alliance and its allies to mark the completion of three years in office.

Once arch political rivals, Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan were seated next to each other along with the prime minister, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury.

Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh and Shivraj Patil confabulated at an adjacent table.

Among others present were P Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar, T R Baalu, Kamal Nath, Ambika Soni, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, A Raja, Mehbooba Mufti and E Ahamed.

Rahul Gandhi smiled his way out of questions from inquisitive journalists. Sonia too refrained from entertaining queries like when she was contemplating reshuffling her All India Congress Committee team.

A number of parliamentarians from Congress and its allies were also present.