International Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-party meet set to be held today. More than 15 political parties have been invited for the party meet.
The meeting will be centered around the Indo-China border tensions which seem to have escalated after violent clashes at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night that claimed the lives of 20 Indian Army personnel.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh dialled presidents and heads of all political parties to brief them about the intent of the meet.
Party chiefs who are expected to attend the all-party meet today are:
1. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi
2. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin
3. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu
4. Ändhra Pradesh CM, representing YSCRCP, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy
5. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar
6. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar
7. CPI leader D Raja
8. CP(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury
9. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik
10. Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao
11. West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee
12. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Badal
13. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan
14. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray
15. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav
16. Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren representing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)
17. BJD leader Pinaki Mishra
According to Government sources there’s no intent to exclude any party, however, a fresh controversy sparked on the eve of the meet after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alleged that they were not invited for the meet. Political parties with more than five MPs have been invited and therefore, the AAP with four MPs in Parliament has been left out.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh said: “At the time of national crisis when you are inviting all the other parties and taking opinions, you don’t think it is important to consider the opinion of a party which leads a government in the national capital. I don’t understand what kind of arrogance is this.”
RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav has tweeted “the criteria for inviting political parties for tomorrow’s all-party meet on Galwan valley”. He also mentioned: “Our party @RJDforIndia hasn’t received any message so far.”
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