Rahul meeting Pawar shows seriousness for bigger alliance: NCP

Congress president Rahul Gandhi's meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar hours after the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar Lok Sabha bypoll results were announced, shows that the Congress leadership is serious on forging a bigger alliance of opposition parties, the NCP said today.

In a major blow to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party was trounced in the bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats, including the citadel of Yogi Adityanath's Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

"Rahul Gandhi has started meeting various party leaders and began this practice by meeting Pawar saheb. The Congress president is meeting party presidents who are senior to him," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

"Despite the Congress being the bigger party, Rahul Gandhi has started meeting leaders of other parties. This shows they (Congress) are serious on making a bigger alliance," Malik, a former Maharashtra minister, told PTI here.

The NCP leader said, "Rahul Gandhi wants that Pawar saheb should bring in more people (parties) in the country under the UPA fold."
Asked if the Shiv Sena, the BJP's bickering alliance partner, will withdraw support to the Narendra Modi government, like the TDP did, Malik said, the "Sena won't part ways with the BJP-led government."