Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Thursday presided over a meeting comprising 17 Opposition parties, and called for opposition unity to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported. While the Bahujan Samaj Party did not attend the meeting, the Aam Aadmi Party was not invited.

Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, urged the Opposition leaders to set aside their differences on state matters. “We should altogether adopt a common approach and strategy both inside and outside Parliament,” she said. “There can be differences among parties in states, but there should not be differences on national issues and we should stand unitedly.”

Top leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien, Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Yadav, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, were present at the meeting. Rebel Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav was also present in the meeting, along with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti and Mohammad Salim of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The meeting came soon after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018-’19 in Parliament on Thursday morning. The parties discussed matters such as inflation, farm distress, high fuel prices, allowing foreign direct investment in Indian businesses, unemployment and the push for simultaneous elections, The Hindu reported.

The violence that broke out in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj town on January 26 was also discussed. “We have to be very careful as far as ideology of hate is concerned and there are rampant incidents of violence across country on caste and religious lines. Constitutional institutions are being undermined,” Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad quoted Sonia Gandhi as saying at the meeting.

The Congress’ mood was buoyed on Thursday after the party trounced the BJP in the bye-elections that were held in Rajasthan. “Everyone was keen to see its logical conclusion,” Azad said, according to PTI.