New Delhi: The UPA on Wednesday projected a united picture on the eve of the presidential poll with all constituents including Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and supporting parties attending a lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
K D Singh and Sukendhu Sekhar Roy, both Rajya Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress, represented their party at the luncheon get-together, a day after Banerjee declared her party's support to UPA's presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
While Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was seated with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra and RLD chief Ajit Singh shared the table with Sonia Gandhi.
Union Minister Sharad Pawar, whose party was reportedly unhappy with the new pecking order in the Cabinet that has relegated him to the third position after A K Antony, also shared the table with Sonia Gandhi.
Senior party leaders Ahmed Patel, Janardan Dwivedi, Ambika Soni, Rajiv Shukla and Shakeel Ahmed received the guests at the venue, a five-star hotel.
Soni told reporters after the lunch that it was a "routine" affair.
She said this kind of lunch is hosted by the Congress President every year for UPA allies and the parties supporting the government from outside and it was only a coincidence that this time it took place a day before the voting for presidential election.
The Congress President had yesterday held interaction with party MPs from various states on Presidential election where she told them to complete all formalities for voting so that no vote is wasted.
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