Coming in the wake of Patel, political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, staving off a determined BJP effort to stall his Rajya Sabha prospects, the opposition had aimed at signalling a fresh offensive. However, NCP's decision to stay away from the gathering came as a jolt to the opposition which has just lost JD(U) after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA-fold. He called it a Congress propaganda to project NCP as "BJP's B-team" to damage its credentials ahead of assembly elections in Gujarat. Suggesting that the opposition parties had to build an "alternative narrative" to counter PM Narendra Modi and BJP, Yechury said, "This could be done through effective strategy and by taking up pro-people issues such as agrarian crisis. "Apart from NCP, M Jose of Kerala Congress (Mani) excused himself from the meeting as he had a party programme on Friday.

Source: Times of India August 11, 2017 19:24 UTC