Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka, several political leaders attend lunch hosted by Bhupinder Singh Hooda

Chandigarh, Feb 6 (PTI) Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were among the MPs from various parties who attended a lunch hosted by former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday at his Delhi residence.

"More than 85 MPs from various parties, including Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary and MP Priyanka Gandhi, along with almost all Congress MLAs from Haryana, former MPs, former MLAs, and former ministers from the state, were present," a statement said.

It added that during the event, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi visited the food stalls with Hooda and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda and enjoyed various dishes.

"The two leaders also spent about an hour with the Hooda family. A notable aspect of this lunch was that prominent leaders from various parties, setting aside partisan politics, enjoyed the authentic Haryanvi-style cuisine," the statement read.

During the event, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and MP Deepender Hooda warmly welcomed the guests, which also included leaders from TMC, AAP, and Shiv Sena. Along with the lunch, people were also seen engaging in discussions on contemporary issues.

The lunch also provided an opportunity for many old colleagues to meet and exchange views, the statement said, adding that Hooda has been hosting a lunch at his Delhi residence every year on the occasion of Lohri and Makar Sankranti.

Those who attended the lunch hosted by Hooda also included Jaya Bachchan, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, B K Hariprasad, Saugata Roy, Mukul Wasnik, Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid, Sandeep Dikshit, Digvijay Singh, Manoj Kumar Jha, Praful Patel, Rajiv Shukla, Anand Sharma, Janardan Dwivedi, Harendra Malik, Kishori Lal Sharma, Mohammad Javed, Jothimani Sennimalai, T Sumathi, Jitu Patwari, Harish Chaudhary, S. Venkatesh, Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Pramod Tiwari.

Ummedaram Beniwal, Harish Meena, Nasir Hussain, Raghav Chadha, Mahua Moitra, Gurdeep Sappal, Akshay Yadav, Neeraj Dangi, Manoj Kumar Sasaram, Sanjana Jatav, Ujjwal Raman Singh, Dharmendra Yadav, Imran Pratapgarhi, Ranjita Ranjan, Pappu Chaudhary, Shashikant Senthil, Pawan Khera, Ashwani Kumar, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Supriya Shrinate also attended the event.

Later, at another venue, Hooda, who is the Leader of Opposition in Haryana, chaired a CLP meeting of his party unit and said that Congress will seek answers on several issues of public importance in the upcoming budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. PTI SUN MPL MPL