Sena, TMC, BSP, DMK bunk: Amid dwindling 'Opposition', here's who answered Congress' call

Amid the widespread protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), the opposition parties met on Monday to discuss the current political situation and figure out their strategy. The meeting called by the Congress was expected to be a show of strength but the absence of parties like Mamata Banerjee's TMC, BSP, Shiv Sena, DMK and AAP made it look ordinary. Despite this, few opposition party leaders attended the meeting at the Parliament Annexe Building.

Here is the list of the leaders who were a part of the meeting:

1. Congress

• Party President Sonia Gandhi
• Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi
• Dr Manmohan Singh
• Ghulam Nabi Azad
• AK Antony 
• Ahmed Patel 
• KC Venugopal 

2. NCP

• Sharad Pawar
• Praful Patel

3. CPI (M)

• Sitaram Yechuri 
• D Raja

4. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha

• Hemant Soren 

5. Rashtriya Janata Dal 

• Manoj Jha

6. Loktantrik Janta Dal (LJD)

• Sharad Yadav

Other leaders who attended the meeting were IUML's PK Kinhalikutty, Shatrujeet Singh from Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Mir Mohammad Fayaz from PDP, Hasnain Masoodi NC. Members from parties like JDS, RLD, Forward Bloc etc were also present.

Earlier in the day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati decided to stay away. Mayawati tweeted that her party was boycotting the meet as the Congress had poached her MLAs in Rajasthan. Mayawati had dissolved the party's executive in Rajasthan after all  its six legislators joined the Congress. Congress ally in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, has also skipped the meeting despite the party and its president MK Stalin being vocal in its opposition to the citizenship law. 

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The Aam Aadmi Party, too, decided not to attend the meeting. Party leader Sanjay Singh said that the party was "not aware" of the meeting and hence they would not attend it. There was also confusion over whether Shiv Sena, which is in alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra, would attend the meeting as varying reports came through the day. Later, sources in Uddhav Thackeray's party said they had not received a formal invite for the meeting and hence could not attend.

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