Finance
New Delhi: Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress chief and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, confirmed that his office has not received an invitation to the G20 gala dinner hosted by the President on Saturday. Mr Kharge holds a cabinet minister rank, and is the president of the country’s largest opposition party.
Sources have indicated that leaders from other political parties have not received invitations either.
They have extended invitations to the dinner for all cabinet and state ministers, as well as all Chief Ministers. All Secretaries to the Government of India and other distinguished guests, including big industrialists, are also on the guest list.
They extended invitations to former Prime Ministers Dr. Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda as well.
Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren from Jharkhand, Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal, MK Stalin from Tamil Nadu, Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi, and Bhagwant Mann from Punjab are among the Chief Ministers who have confirmed they will attend the dinner gala.
The organizers have instructed all invited guests to arrive at Parliament House tomorrow at 5:45 PM. Special transportation arrangements will shuttle them to Bharat Mandapam and back.
This was done due to VVIP movement and traffic restrictions.
The convoys of invited guests will not go till Bharat Mandapam.
Delhi Police has drawn up the itinerary to bring all the Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, Chief Ministers, Secretaries, and other special guests from their residence to Parliament House.
The gala dinner will take place at the multi-function hall of the Bharat Mandapam, the revamped India Trade Promotion Organisation complex at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, which has a huge capacity. There will be a short cultural programme accompanying the gala dinner, Muktesh Pardeshi, who is a special secretary (operations) of the G20 and is heading the operations and logistics for the summit, told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will welcome the leaders of all countries individually at the venue, where he will also host a working lunch for them on Saturday, officials said.
Bharat Mandapam has scheduled two sessions for Saturday, with PM Modi slated to arrive at the venue at 9 am.
