Akhilesh lone UP leader to attend meet

PATNA With BSP chief Mayawati not getting an invitation and another key UP player and RLD president Jayant Chaudhary expressing his helplessness in attending the opposition meeting on Friday, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will be the lone leader representing Uttar Pradesh at the mega meet.

“I won’t be able to attend the June 23 meeting of the opposition parties in Patna due to prior engagement in a family function,” Chaudhary said in his letter to CM Nitish Kumar. However, he hoped the meeting would be an “important milestone in the path of opposition unity”, seeking the need for opposition unity.

Mayawati, however, was not invited for the meeting since she was among the opposition leaders who had sided with the BJP during the inauguration of the new parliament building, a senior leader from the ruling Grand Alliance said. Mayawati’s BSP was not among the 20 opposition parties which had boycotted the inaugural function of the new parliament building on May 28.

“This was on similar grounds that several opposition parties were not invited,” the leader said. The 20 parties which boycotted the inaugural function included Congress, DMK, AAP, Shiv Sena, SP, CPI, JMM, Kerala Congress (Mani), Vidithalai Chirithaigal Katchi, RLD, TMC, JD(U), NCP, CPIM, RJD, National Conference, Revolutionary Socialist Party, MDMK and Indian Union Muslim League.


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