Sharad Pawar emerging as key interlocutor among opposition parties

Pawar has invited all top opposition leaders for a meeting on March 28

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday night. The meeting came hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-elections, and a day before the Congress plenary session.

In another development, Lok Janshakti Party chief and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, a constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, called a meeting of all Dalit members of Parliament on Thursday evening.

Paswan had hosted a similar dinner after the BJP's rout in Bihar assembly polls in 2015. The meeting comes in the wake of Rashtriya Janata Dal defeating