New Delhi:
Congress chief and opposition leader Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has not been invited to the G20 gala dinner hosted by the president on Saturday, his office said. Mr Kharge holds the rank of minister and is the president of the country’s largest opposition party.
Sources say no leader of any other political party has been invited either.
All cabinet and state ministers, and all prime ministers, are invited to the dinner. All the Secretaries of the Government of India and other eminent guests, including major industrialists, are also on the guest list.
Former Prime Ministers Dr. Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda were also invited.
Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren from Jharkhand, Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal, Member of Parliament Stalin from Tamil Nadu, Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi and Bhagwant Mann from Punjab are among the Chief Ministers who have confirmed that they will attend the dinner gala.
All guests have been requested to reach the Parliament Building tomorrow at a quarter to six in the evening. From there, special transport arrangements have been made to take them to Bharat Mandapam and back.
This was done due to VVIP movement and traffic restrictions.
The convoys of invitees will not depart until Bharat Mandapam.
The Delhi Police has set up a route to take all the cabinet ministers, foreign ministers, prime ministers, secretaries and other special guests from their residences to the parliament building.
The gala dinner will be held in the multi-purpose hall of the Bharat Mandapam, the revamped complex of the India Trade Promotion Organization at Pragati Maidan in Delhi, which has a huge capacity. There will be a short cultural program at the gala dinner, Muktesh Pardeshi, G20 Special Secretary (Operations) who heads operations and logistics for the summit, told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will individually welcome the leaders of all countries to the venue, where he will also host a working lunch for them on Saturday, officials said.
Two sessions are scheduled on Saturday at Bharat Mandapam, and PM Modi will reach the venue at 9am.
There will be more than 40 delegations headed by presidents, prime ministers and, in some cases, their foreign ministers, as well as international organizations headed by their secretaries-general or executive directors.
Each delegation will have an average of 150 to 200 people. Adding security personnel, media representatives, people involved in catering and others would mean that nearly 10,000 people will be in Bharat Mandapam on Saturday and Sunday, Muktesh Pardeshi said.