At Rahul Gandhi’s iftar party, leaders munched on G-7, Donald Trump & Kim Jong Un

KOLKATA: The food for thought at Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s iftar party was international relations, G-7 meet and Trump-Kim summit. The country’s current economic situation was also on the plate. And this circuitous route was taken to build chemistry within the opposition parties.

With former president Pranab Mukherjee as star guest, the discussion at the high table, which also included Trinamool Congress’ Dinesh Trivedi, mostly focused on the current global situation. There were some light moments too, mainly over a recent yoga video posted by PM Modi.

The overall mood at the iftar was to strengthen the opposition platform to put up a united fight against BJP in the next general elections.


Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had earlier decided to attend the iftar, changed her mind at the last moment and decided to send her senior party colleague Trivedi to the event. Trivedi, who was railways minister in the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government, shares friendly ties with top national leaders, including Rahul Gandhi.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has floated the idea of a federal front along with her Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekar Rao, is playing a leading role in uniting all opposition parties. Banerjee also shares a cordial relationship with former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Representation from Trinamool Congress indicates that Banerjee is not averse to mingling with Congress and is trying her best to build a working chemistry within the fledgling opposition front.

Significantly, this was the second time when Banerjee chose not to attend a gathering organised by the Congress leadership. In March, she had skipped a dinner hosted by Sonia Gandhi for the opposition leaders. However, she attended another dinner in the same month organised by NCP’s Sharad Pawar and met several other opposition leaders, barring Congress president Rahul Gandhi.