Opposition leaders from across parties met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin during his brief visit to Parliament on Thursday.
Apart from his meetings with the Prime Minister and other Ministers, Mr. Stalin is here to inaugurate the party office in Delhi on Rouse Avenue, close to the BJP headquarters. The inauguration is scheduled for April 2.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi was among the leaders who dropped by at the DMK’s Parliamentary office to greet him “I just came to say vanakkam. I will see you on Saturday, at the opening of your office,” she told Mr. Stalin.
The DMK has also invited West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the event, but so far there has been no confirmation whether she will come. Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar is also expected to be present. Many Opposition leaders in Delhi are looking forward to this event as informal meeting of the Opposition to discuss the current situation and also the possibility of propping up a joint candidate for the Presidential elections due in July this year.
The DMK has also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J.P. Nadda. Mr. Nadda, speaking to The Hindu, said that while the party had received the invitation, it had not yet taken a final call on who will represent them at the inauguration.
Many TMC MPs turned up at the Central Hall of Parliament to meet Mr. Stalin, including Mahua Moitra, Mausam Noor and Jawahar Sircar. CPI general secretary D. Raja came to Parliament to meet him. DMK Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva was seen clicking a selfie with Mr. Raja and Mr. Stalin at the Central Hall. RJD MP Manoj K. Jha also turned photographer, clicking pictures of other Parliamentary colleagues with Mr. Stalin. YSR Congress leader Vijay Sai Reddy also met Mr. Stalin. “Mr. Stalin has taken some key initiatives at the national level. He brought the secular parties together in Tamil Nadu against the BJP. I met him and we will put our heads together to work on Opposition unity for the future,” Mr. Raja said.
Other than Mr. Modi, Mr. Stalin also met Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Home Minister Amit Shah. He is slated to meet Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday. According to sources, he will also be visiting schools and Mohalla clinics run by the Delhi government along with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday.
