Sonia Gandhi to host Farewell Dinner for PM Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, May 11: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will host a farewell dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on May 14, two days before the announcement of results of Lok Sabha elections.

A memento is also expected to be presented to Dr Singh signed by all members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Union Ministers, sources said.

The Prime Minister would be demitting office on May 17. He had earlier this year announced his retirement after a decade at the helm of two successive United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments.

On the eve of his demitting office, the Prime Minister is scheduled to address the people in a farewell speech.

Congress leaders had always spoken of the relationship between the Prime Minister and Mrs Gandhi as an ideal division of labour, which saw perfect harmonisation between the government and the party.

AICC has always maintained that there cannot be any better relationship between a party president and a Prime Minister and had often dismissed as "rumours and disinformation" reports of differences between the two.

PTI