Rahul Gandhi met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in New Delhi late on Wednesday night, after the trouncing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in bypolls. The meeting was reportedly held at Pawar’s residence.

According to reports, Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule also attended the meeting held last night.

The meeting between Pawar and the Congress president came a day after a dinner hosted by Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath attended by leaders from 19 non-BJP parties. The Congress is looking at forming a ‘grand alliance’ with other parties to take on the BJP in the 2019 General Elections.

“It is clear that the people are angry with the BJP. They will vote for the non-BJP parties who have the strongest chance of winning,” Rahul said on Wednesday adding that his party is “committed to rebuilding UP; it won’t happen overnight.”

आज के उपचुनावों में जीतने वाले उम्मीदवारों को बधाई।

नतीजों से स्पष्ट है कि मतदाताओं में भाजपा के प्रति बहुत क्रोध है और वो उस गैर भाजपाई उम्मीदवार के लिए वोट करेंगे जिसके जीतने की संभावना सबसे ज़्यादा हो।

कांग्रेस यूपी में नवनिर्माण के लिए तत्पर है, ये रातों रात नहीं होगा।

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 14, 2018

Emboldened by BJP’s defeat at three Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, prominent Opposition leaders expressed their strong willingness to form a unified alliance.

Leaders such as Tejashwi Yadav of RJD and Sharad Yadav said that an alliance of non-BJP parties will be able to defeat party led by Amit Shah next year.

Appeals were made to Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), traditional rivals in Uttar Pradesh, to keep aside their egos and come together. The two parties had joined hands temporarily for the by-polls.

Though SP leader and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav did not directly point towards an alliance with BSP, he congratulated and thanked Mayawati along with other leaders for the victory in Phulpur and Gorakhpur.

फूलपुर व गोरखपुर में परिवर्तनकारी जीत के लिए जनता और मायावती जी-बसपा, निषाद, पीस व प्रगतिशील मानव समाज पार्टी, NCP, RLD, वामदलों के साथ ही सपा के भी नेताओं-कार्यकताओं को कोटि-कोटि धन्यवाद! निर्वाचित सांसद श्री नागेंद्र पटेल व श्री प्रवीण निषाद को हार्दिक बधाई. ये एकता की जीत है.

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) March 15, 2018

The defeat in Gorakhpur came as a shock to the BJP and its supporters. The parliamentary constituency has been with the saffron party since 1989. Yogi Adityanath was elected five times from the seat before he vacated it to become the CM of Uttar Pradesh. Phulpur was the seat of UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Though she did not attend the Congress dinner, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the victorious leaders including Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati.

“The beginning of the end has started,” she wrote on Twitter referring to the BJP’s defeat.

Rahul Gandhi will be meeting Banerjee on 28 March at New Delhi. The Congress attempt at forming an alliance comes after TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao called for a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.