Post 2014 election results, the non-BJP parties feel that the Congress is useless. They find it to be quite ineffectual. So, an invite from the Congress Party is no longer taken seriously by these parties. Especially, the parties that have strong presence in some state or the other feel that aligning with the Congress is counter-productive.
Naturally, when the Congress called for a meeting of the like-minded Opposition parties on Monday to chart out a course of action against the BJP Government on the issue of economic slowdown, there were few takers. Major opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party of Uttar Pradesh, Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, Aam Admi Party of Delhi and Janata Dal Secular of Karnataka kept away from the meeting. Interestingly, the NCP, which fought the assembly elections in Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress, too had stayed away from the meeting. Ironically, Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar are in constant touch over the situation in Maharashtra, but the NCP did not feel like attending the meet.
The only two parties that attended the Congress-sponsored meeting were the CPI and the CPM. Top leaders from the two parties attended the meeting, but even they did not attend the joint press conference. They left way before the press conference was to begin.
Naturally, when the Congress called for a meeting of the like-minded Opposition parties on Monday to chart out a course of action against the BJP Government on the issue of economic slowdown, there were few takers. Major opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party of Uttar Pradesh, Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, Aam Admi Party of Delhi and Janata Dal Secular of Karnataka kept away from the meeting. Interestingly, the NCP, which fought the assembly elections in Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress, too had stayed away from the meeting. Ironically, Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar are in constant touch over the situation in Maharashtra, but the NCP did not feel like attending the meet.
The only two parties that attended the Congress-sponsored meeting were the CPI and the CPM. Top leaders from the two parties attended the meeting, but even they did not attend the joint press conference. They left way before the press conference was to begin.