Sonia Gandhi to host dinner for opposition leaders on March 13

Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will host opposition leaders over dinner on March 13 amid suggestions to forge a common front against the BJP in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections, party sources said on Tuesday.

The dinner, which the sources described as "customary", comes amid renewed push by opposition parties to take on the Narendra Modi government on several issues including the Rs 12,600 crore PNB fraud case.

Congress and seventeen other opposition parties have been holding meetings since the presidential and vice-presidential elections last year to forge stance on common issues against the BJP.

Sonia Gandhi had last month said that she will work with like-minded political parties to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

There is also movement in opposition camp to forge a third front with TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao offering to lead it.

He had on Monday unveiled plans to conduct a series of meetings across the country to develop a national agenda.

Rao's idea of a front to provide an alternative to both the BJP and the Congress has already received support from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi and actor-politician Pawan Kalyan.

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