Political foes share a laugh and loaf at Shahnawaz Hussain's party

Iftaar camaraderie

Political foes share a laugh and loaf at Shahnawaz Hussain's party

IFTAAR'S have been one of the prominent ways of flexing political muscle in Delhi power circles. The month of Ramzan, each year, sees a number of political heavyweights inviting rivals and friends over for an evening feast. The more the number of guests the higher the hype.

Pilgrim's progress: Shahnawaz Hussain and his family with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh at the party

Senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain's Iftaar party on Wednesday is a case in point.

Despite the fact that Bihar assembly elections are round the corner, Hussain's political adversaries in the state attended the party. Ironically, the same day both houses of the parliament were stalled by non-BJP opposition parties mainly the SP, RJD and LJP alleging a Congress-BJP deal in return for CBI's clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a fake encounter case, but at the end of the day, all the three leaders RJD chief Lalu Prasad, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav attended the Iftaar.

Prominent among those present were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and several Congress leaders. Several Congress MPs, union ministers and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar were also present at the Iftaar held at 7, Pandit Pant Marg, the residence of Hussain.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan, who is credited with having brought BJP on board on the Civil Nuclear Bill, was one of the first guests to arrive. Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Kursheed and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad were also among popular guests.

It seemed that Hussain had invited more Congress leaders than BJP's. Former external minister and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also made his presence felt. Minister of state Information Technology Sachin Pilot and Sandip Dikshit also attended the party.

Among the BJP leaders who attended the Iftaar were LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushil Modi, Arjun Munda, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy but party president Nitin Gadkari and the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley did not make it.