After all-party meet, PM Narendra Modi to host dinner for all MPs tonight

PM Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of all political parties to discuss the idea of `One Country, One Election` along with other issues.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a dinner for all the Members of Parliament on Thursday. The PM's dinner party will be held at the Ashoka Hotel in the national capital, according to reports.

On behalf of the PM, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has extended an invitation to all Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. It will also be for the first time that the Prime Minister will be meeting all the MPs after the BJP-led NDA II government was formed last month.

PM Modi had on Wednesday chaired a meeting of all political parties to discuss the idea of `One Country, One Election` along with other issues of national importance.

During the all-party meet on Sunday, ahead of the start of the 17th Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister had urged all leaders to keep their political differences aside.

However, several parties, which are opposed to the idea of simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, including the Congress, skipped the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of 'one nation, one election'.

The other which joined the Congress in not attending the meeting included NDA ally Shiv Sena as well as the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the DMK, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Trinamool Congress.

Though the Left parties, represented by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja, attended the meeting, they opposed the idea.

The meeting was held in the library building of Parliament.

The Congress took the decision of staying away from the meeting after consultations with other parties on the issue. 

The party had earlier convened a meeting of all opposition leaders on Wednesday morning to discuss the issue but it was cancelled in view of its president Rahul Gandhi's birthday.

BSP chief Mayawati said in a tweet that she would have attended the all-party meeting if it was on electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also did not attend the meeting. 

The Aam Aadmi Party was represented by party member Raghav Chadha, they said.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi was represented at the meeting by its working president KT Rama Rao, the son of K Chandrashekar Rao.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had on Tuesday declined the invitation to attend the meeting and asked the Centre to instead prepare a white paper on the "one nation, one election" issue for consultations.