The Hindu : National : Left `keeps off' dinner meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

National

National

Left `keeps off' dinner meet

Special Correspondent

Some away on party work, others pre-occupied with office work

NEW DELHI : The Left parties on Tuesday stayed away from the dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the constituents of the United Progressive Alliance and supporting parties, ahead of the budget session.

A day after the Coordination Committee meeting with the UPA, the Left leaders present in the capital, Abani Roy of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and D. Raja of the Communist Party of India opted to keep away from the meeting citing preoccupation with official work.

CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat, his CPI counterpart A.B. Bardhan and All-India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas are away on party work. The Lok Sabha Speaker hosted lunch for the UPA allies that was attended by Rashtriya Janata Dal members, Lalu Prasad and Devendra Prasad Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Lok Jan Shakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan, besides C. Kuppusami.

Later, he held a dinner meeting with leaders of the parties supporting the UPA from outside including the Left, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mr. Chatterjee who has been holding discussions with political parties would end the exercise with an all-party meeting on Wednesday.

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