NCP chief Sharad Pawar is unlikely to attend the first anniversary celebrations of UPA-2 in New Delhi on May 22 as he is abroad but Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is said to have finally agreed to grace the occasion.
The Congress managers have invited DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and the leaders of supporting parties — the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the RJD — but are unsure whether Mr Karunanidhi will come to the national capital.
It will be interesting to see whether the Mayawati-led BSP will attend the function after the Congress virtually announced it as a key rival in Uttar Pradesh.
Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, whose NCP has been sharing power with the Congress at the Centre and in Maharashtra as well, has already left for abroad on Wednesday on a week-long visit. It is not immediately known who will represent the NCP in the celebrations. Union ministers Praful Patel and Agatha Sangma represent the party in the government along with Mr Pawar. Mr Pawar will visit Europe and the US and be back by the end of this month, sources said, adding that he would be attending a Natya Parishad in New Jersey on May 29 and 30.
Ms Banerjee will be present at the celebrations and she conveyed her decision to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had rang her up on Tuesday to invite her on the occasion.
Though the Trinamul Congress is the second-largest party in UPA after the Congress, the two are at loggerheads in the Kolkata municipal elections which they are contesting separately following failure of seat-sharing talks. The Trinamul’s primary objective is to prove that the Congress can survive by becoming a B team of either the Trinamul or the Marxists in West Bengal.
The DMK sources said that Union minister M.K. Alagiri is unlikely to attend the celebrations as he is on a personal visit to the US. But DMK leaders T.R. Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran are likely to attend.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav and the BSP had helped the Centre in defeating the Opposition members’ cut motions during the Budget Session of Parliament. The SP and RJD had defected from a 13-party group formed at the instance of the Left.