By Ashok Singhal: NCP supremo Sharad Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi at Kharge’s residence in New Delhi over Opposition unity on Thursday.

The leaders are likely to take forward unity talks as more deliberations are expected in the coming days.

Pawar’s meeting comes a day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav met Kharge and Rahul Gandhi amid talks of like-minded Opposition parties coming together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The NCP chief recently came out in support of industrialist Gautam Adani and stood in favour of the Supreme Court probe into the Adani issue instead of a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation, as demanded by several Opposition parties, including the Congress.

The Congress will convene a meeting of top opposition leaders very soon, PTI reported.

READ | Efforts for Opposition unity have picked up pace: Sitaram Yechury after meeting Nitish Kumar

Efforts to cement Opposition unity gathered pace today with Nitish Kumar meeting Left veterans Sitaram Yechury and D Raja on Thursday. The JDU chief left the national capital after meeting with several opposition leaders, including Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

After his meeting with Kumar, CPI-M general secretary Yechury said seat adjustments will be made at the state level and indicated that a third front was a possibility.

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“Efforts for Opposition unity have picked up the pace. An opposition coalition will be formed and seat adjustments will be done at the state level,” the CPI(M) general secretary said.

“In Kerala, the Congress and our party are arch rivals. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not in a fight there,” he said.

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He further said that the third front that is going to be formed will always be after the elections.

“But in India, fronts are formed post polls such as United Front in 1996, in 1998 NDA was formed after elections, UPA formed post polls in 2004,” Yechury said.

(With PTI inputs)