Attended by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janata Dal (United)'s Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Prem Gupta and National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, the meeting marked the coming together of the regional parties to support a 'grand alliance' of RJD-JD(U)-Congress in Bihar against the BJP. The meeting coincided with finalisation of the seat-sharing arrangement among the three parties.
The meeting took place at the behest of Banerjee who wanted regional, secular forces to come together to defeat the 'communal' forces symbolised by the BJP.
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Pawar had met Banerjee in her party office in Parliament on Tuesday. Incidentally, Banerjee too is fighting an aggressive BJP in Bengal, which is making inroads into the state.
Mulayam Singh described the meeting as "quite successful". Sources said these leaders could even show up at the proposed Swabhimaan Rally on August 30 in Patna, organised by JD(U)-RJD.
Another insider said if the grand alliance experiment worked in Bihar, it would be replicated in West Bengal polls also. In Patna on Wednesday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had stated publicly that he would welcome the NCP also fighting the Assembly polls along with them and as for the SP, they were now a "family" and would be accommodated happily.
Officially, however, the leaders maintained that they discussed "issues related to federalism, the land Bill, developmental issues, farmers issues". Abdullah said the situation in J& K was also discussed.
Earlier, NCP's Praful Patel had clarified that the coming together of these parties was not to be interpreted as formation of a "Third Front".
Parliament has also witnessed these parties adopting an independent line.