Pawar ready to umpire UPA

Pawar went on to explain he wasn’t keen on taking the lead although his party executive had passed a resolution requesting him to take an initiative to bring secular forces together. ‘‘We are having regular meetings over various issues and hope that Bihar-like situation would not be repeated,’’ he said.

Two key players in Bihar, RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, will come together at the NCP meet on Friday. They are among the invitees for an open session at the indoor stadium here. Sources said Pawar will also hold parleys with Left Front leaders and other allies.

The NCP chief has never hidden his ambitions to emerge as a leader of the non-Congress secular forces at the Centre, and the convention comes at an opportune time for him to push forward.

Knowing his moves won’t go down well with the Congress, Pawar has sought to underplay the effort. ‘‘Why should we keep Congress away if our motive is to unify secular forces in the country?’’ he said.

The NCP had also invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the Surat convention. However, she wrote to Pawar that she would not be able to attend and was deputing senior party leader Mukul Wasnik instead. The convention will also be a homecoming for former Speaker P.A. Sangma who was elected to Lok Sabha on a Trinamool Congress ticket in 2004.

Sena’s Ramesh Prabhu to join NCP

: Ramesh Prabhu, former Shiv Sena MLA who fell out with the Thackerays and went on to unsuccessfully contest the Assembly polls as an independent, has finally decided to join the NCP. The formal entry will be on June 10, on the occasion of the NCP’s seventh convention in Surat. Prabhu would be the second prominent Sena rebel to join NCP after Bhaskar Jadhav, former MLA from Konkan.