PM, Left leaders meet at Sonia dinner

A dinner meeting of the United Progressive Alliance constituents and their outside supporters on Wednesday became a significant affair as it saw interaction between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Left leaders a day after they rejected the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to members of Parliament of the ruling alliance and supporting parties, including the Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party, was also a show of strength ahead of the vice presidential election on Friday.

UPA-Left candidate Hamid Ansari who was also present at the dinner interacted with the members.

Ansari is also slated to meet Left MPs separately on Thursday.

While the prime minister had held telephonic talks with Left leaders soon after their public rejection of the deal on Tuesday, both sides have been mum on the specifics of the discussions.

The Left was represented by Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat, senior leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI's A B Bardhan and D Raja and Revolutionary Socialist Party's Abani Roy.

Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's T R Baalu and Lok Janshakti Party's Ramvilas Paswan were also present at the dinner, which was aimed at sending a strong signal that it is a cakewalk for Ansari.

A host of Union Ministers including Shivraj Patil, A K Antony, Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Sushilkumar Shinde, H R Bhardwaj, Anand Sharma, P R Dasmunsi, Renuka Choudhary and Congress MP Govinda were also present at the dinner.

Among the nominated MPs, noted film-maker Shyam Benegal, who was on Wednesday honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award, and Shobhana Bhartia were present as also eminent laywer Ram Jethmalani.

Sonia had hosted a similar dinner before the presidential election last month.