Ex-Congress leader Kapil Sibal attends India bloc meet

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal's surprise presence at Opposition bloc INDIA's meeting in Mumbai on Friday reportedly didn't go down well with some Congress leaders. Sibal, who left Congress last year and was backed by the Samajwadi Party for Rajya Sabha, was not an official invitee to the meeting, sources said. They said hat Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal has complained about Mr Sibal's presence to ex-Maharashtra minister Uddhav Thackeray before a photo op of opposition leaders. Thackeray's Shiv Sena UBT is hosting the INDIA bloc meeting.

Visuals of Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, NCP working president Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai ahead of the INDIA alliance meeting. pic.twitter.com/vNIZshXMlz

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Sources say several leaders were also uncomfortable with Sibal being part of a photo session of leaders of the opposition bloc. However, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav reportedly spoke to KC Venugopal who appears to have relented after Rahul Gandhi's stance on the matter.Sibal, a former union minister, quit the Congress on May 16 last year, a day after the party's "Chintan Shivir", or brainstorming meet, to discuss revival efforts following crushing election defeats and a series of internal crises.The latter included concerns raised by Sibal as part of the "G-23", or group of 23 dissenters who had called for sweeping changes in the Congress. In the months leading to his exit,  Sibal said "the leadership (the Gandhis) is in cuckooland".