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Sonia Gandhi's Iftar party
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday night hosted her first Iftar in three years, which saw the Congress president sharing a table with leaders of Rashtriya Janata Dal and its new-found ally Janata Dal-United.
Here are some photos of the event
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Sonia Gandhi's Iftar party
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and JD-U leader Sharad Yadav were seated with Sonia Gandhi at the Iftar which was also attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
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Sonia Gandhi's Iftar party
While Rahul was seated with diplomats, Dr Singh was on a separate table with former Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi and cine star Sharmila Tagore among others.
Sonia sought Singh to her table where NCP leader Tariq Anwar was also seated, but the former Prime Minister went to his designated place.
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Sonia Gandhi's Iftar party
The fast-breaking feast during Ramzan is only the second big Iftar hosted this season after the one by President Pranab Mukherjee last week.
The Iftar by Gandhi, who did not hold the feast during last three years because of natural disaster or tragedy in the country, was organised at Ashoka Hotel and attended by political leaders, academicians, diplomats, religious leaders and journalists.
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Sonia Gandhi's Iftar party
Those in attendance included former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, Ambika Soni, JD-U's Prem Chand Gupta, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, Ajay Maken, Motilal Vora, Digvijay Singh, Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma, Shakeel Ahmed, Rajeev Shukla, Kumari Selja, Mohsina Kidwai, Karan Singh, CLP chief in Delhi Assembly Haroon Yusuf, DPCC president Arvinder Singh Lovely, Raj Babbar, Mohammed Azaharuddin and Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad was also present.
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Sonia Gandhi's Iftar party
During UPA rule, iftaars were also hosted by then prime minister Manmohan Singh. Successor Narendra Modi has not held one till date. BJP leaders such as Shah Nawaz Hussain and Najma Heptullah, who used to host prominent iftaar parties, abstained this year. Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, head of the Lok Janshakti Party, has hosted one but in Patna, at his party headquarters.
Much of the conversation at the party centred around the listening devices reporteldy found in Union minister Nitin Gadkari's home, with Congress seniors speculating aloud that it was theBJP brass which would be more interested in his conversations than the Congress.
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