New Delhi:
Congress chief and the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has not been invited to the G20 gala dinner being hosted by the President on Saturday, his office has said. Mr Kharge hold a cabinet minister rank, and is the president of the country’s largest opposition party.
Sources said no leader of any other political party has been invited either.
All cabinet and state ministers, and all Chief Ministers, have been invited to the dinner. All Secretaries to the Government of India and other distinguished guests, including big industrialists, are also on the guest list.
Former Prime Ministers Dr Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda were also invited.
Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren from Jharkhand, Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal, MK Stalin from Tamil Nadu, Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi, and Bhagwant Mann from Punjab are among the Chief Ministers who have confirmed they will attend the dinner gala.
The gala dinner will take place at the multi-function hall of the Bharat Mandapam, the revamped India Trade Promotion Organisation complex at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, which has a huge capacity. There will be a short cultural programme accompanying the gala dinner, Muktesh Pardeshi, who is a special secretary (operations) of the G20 and is heading the operations and logistics for the summit, told NDTV in an exclusive interview.