Prithviraj Chavan, Yashwant Sinha to hold 'apolitical' meet today

MUMBAI: In what may embarrass BJP, senior party leader Yashwant Sinha, former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kumar Ketkar, Trinamool member Dinesh Trivedi and NCP leaders will meet in Mumbai on Saturday.

The meeting may discuss ways to take on the anti-farmer policies of the government. Sinha told ET the meeting will be held under the banner of ‘Rashtra Manch’ and will be ‘apolitical’.

“This has nothing to do with politics. We have got a lot of intellectuals who are attending the meeting. This is a follow-up to the January 30 meeting, where we had spoke on farmers distress and other issues.”said Sinha.


Sinha might claim that the meeting is apolitical but attendees may cause BJP a heartache. For instance, among those will attend the meeting, is Nana Patole who till recently was a BJP MP from Gondhia but has now joined the Congress. Patole has been a strong critic of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Rebel BJP MLA from Katol, Nagpur Ashish Deshmukh will also be present. Deshmukh has been criticising central and state governments. It is said Deshmukh may soon join the Congress.