NEW DELHI: INDIA bloc bigwigs met at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s new official residence for a dinner on Thursday, with the gathering designed to reinforce the message of unity amid joint protests and close coordination during the Parliament session that has brought its proceedings to a halt over the electoral rolls review (SIR) in Bihar.The event lived up to its high-profile billing, with leading lights of the INDIA bloc like Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, TR Baalu, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Mahua Majhi, MA Baby (CPM) and Mehbooba Mufti turning up for the event. Also present were KC Venugopal, D Raja of CPI, NK Premachandran of RSP, Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal of IUML, Mukesh Sahani (VIP), Kamal Haasan, Jose Mani, PK Kunhalikutty, Sanjay Raut, Derek O’Brien, chief ministers Siddaramaiah, Revanth Reddy and Sukhwinder Sukhu, Tiruchi Siva, Ramgopal Yadav, Supriya Sule, Kanimozhi, Dimple Yadav, among others.Ahead of the dinner, Rahul gave a presentation on the “manipulation of voters list” through a party study of an assembly seat under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, on which he held his “atom bomb” press conference earlier in the day.RJD politician Tejashwi spoke about the “special intensive review” in Bihar and said the alliance will take out a statewide protest march against it. He also thanked the allies for a show of support in Parliament and invited them for the march being planned.Abdullah flagged the need for statehood for J&K, while also criticising the ban on books. He also raised the issue of four Rajya Sabha vacancies in the UT, which have not been filled yet. Briefing reporters, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said, “The way we have shown unity in Parliament to put the Modi govt in the dock on people’s issues, the same amity and brotherhood was witnessed.
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