New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hosted an Iftar party at a local luxury hotel, which was attended by Congress and opposition leaders. Former presidents Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee, former vice president Hamid Ansari, former PM Manmohan Singh, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, P Chidambaram, AK Antony, Ashok Gehlot, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Sheila Dikshit, Shashi Tharoor, Janardan Dwivedi and Shivraj Patil were among those present at the event.


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Among the opposition leaders who attended were - CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, Loktantrik Janata Dal party's Sharad Yadav, DMK leader Kanimozhi, Trinamool Congress' Dinesh Trivedi, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satish Chandra Mishra, Nationalist Congress Party's DP Tripathi and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren.


Some diplomats too were present present on the occassion.







Notably, Mukherjee, who was in the eye of a storm and the butt of criticism from some Congress leaders for going to the RSS headquarters, greeted those present at the function as he moved among the guests. Rahul welcomed him and other guests. There was even speculation whether Mukherjee would be invited, but the party issued an official statement to set at rest any such reports by saying that the former president has indeed been invited. He left after a while.




This is the first ever Iftar party to be hosted by Rahul as Congress president. The party did not hold Iftar, which marks the customary breaking of the day-long fast in the holy month of Ramzan, during the past two years. In 2015, the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had hosted the feast at that time. The party conventionally invites leaders of all faiths to the event as also top diplomats.


Prior to 2016, the Congress used to host Iftar in one way or the other. When the party was in power, the then PM Singh used to organise the event. Sonia hosted Iftar until the party decided to skip the event in 2016 and 2017.


(With PTI inputs)