Sonia Gandhi's party: Maya, Akhilesh in; Pawar, Praful out?

New Delhi, Aug 6: Congress President

organised a party just ahead of the Vice Presidential elections on Monday, Aug 6. The names of ministers, who were present and absent in the party, shocked many.

While both Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh Yadav turned up to the party, Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel were absent. While people were shocked to see both Mayawati and her bete noir Mulayam Singh sharing the same dais, many others were suspicious about Pawar and Patel's decision of skipping the party.

Mulayam's 39-year-old son Akhilesh Yadav had defeated Mayawati in the recently held assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. However, many raised eyebrows when Maywati shared the table with Mrs Gandhi along with other VIPs present in the party.

Many questions regarding the Samajwadi Party's decision of supporting UPA government have been raised here. Should the party continue their support to the present ruling government from outside. Recently, Akhilesh in a letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh opposed the government's decision of increasing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail businesses.

Mrs Gandhi earlier also had organised a similar kind of party ahead of presidential election in which Pranab Mukherjee was elected the 13th president of India. During the presidential election, Mulayam Singh assured his support to Mr Mukherjee but a goof up during casting his vote dismantled all calculations. In stead of casting his vote for Mr Mukherjee, Mulayam voted for PA Sangma, the candidate who was backed by NDA and other parties. Though Mulayam was allowed to exercise his franchise again, the vote was declared invalid later during the counting. Mulayam assured his support to Hamid Ansari, UPA's candidate for vice presidential election.

Meanwhile, Pawar and Patel's absence in the party raised questions as NCP and Congress recently had a spat. NCP had even threatened to quit from the UPA, though they resolved the differences later.

Both Congress and NCP decided that a new coordination mechanism be set up. The coordinated committee will be headed by Mrs Gandhi and similar committee will be set up in Maharashtra too, informed Parful Patel after their meeting with the PM and Congress President.

Despite the news of patch up between the Congress and NCP, Pawar and Patel's absence left many questions for critics and others.

OneIndia News