New Delhi: BJP leader LK Advani and Left leaders on Tuesday skipped a farewell dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and General Secretary Amar Singh, Akali Dal leader SS Dhindsa were among those who attended the dinner.
Coming out of the dinner, Amar Singh told reporters that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was not present at the dinner.
Chatterjee was accompanied by his wife Renu for the dinner at the Prime Minister's official Race Course Road residence.
Advani skipping the dinner meeting comes amid a bitter war of words he has had with the Prime Minister.
Also, the BJP did not have the best of relations with Chatterjee during the five-year term of the outgoing Lok Sabha.
CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury were been invited to the dinner but they also did not make it. Chatterjee was expelled by CPI(M) last year.
The Left parties severed their ties with Chatterjee when he refused to resign his post before the Trust Vote last year after they withdrew support to UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Among others who were at the dinner were former Prime Minister IK Gujral, Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj, former home minister Shivraj Patil and senior Congress leader Karan Singh.
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