Ladakh face-off: Modi to hold all-party meet shortly; Mamata to attend, AAP claims not invited

New Delhi, June 19: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meeting on the India-China border face-off on Friday. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the Monday night brawl and 18 others have been injured.

News agency ANI reported that 20 parties will attend the virtual meeting in which home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president JP Nadda will also be present.

Meanwhile, Banerjee, the TMC chief, had on Wednesday said the Centre's move to call the all-party meeting to discuss the situation was a right decision.

"Our party supremo would attend the meeting via video-conference. As she had earlier mentioned, we stand by the country in this hour of crisis," a senior TMC leader said.
On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh, claimed that they have not been invited to Friday's meeting.

"A strange ego-ridden government is running at the Centre. The Aam Aadmi Party has a government in Delhi. It is the main Opposition party in Punjab. There are four MPs all over the country, but still the BJP does not want AAP's opinion on such an important matter. What will the prime minister say in the meeting, the whole country is waiting for it," Singh tweeted in Hindi.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi wrote to PM Modi stating, "it is disappointing that my party was not invited to today's "All Party Meeting" on China border issue which was to be chaired by you."

Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff between the two neighbours.