Mumbai: A day after Prashant Kishor met Sharad Pawar setting off speculations about a national coalition against the BJP, the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP's) senior leader Nawab Malik on Saturday explained the three-hour lunch meeting. "There is a need to form a wider alliance of political parties against the BJP ahead of the next general elections. NCP president Sharad Pawar had himself spoken about the need to have a national alliance of all parties to take on the BJP and had said he would try to bring together all such forces," Malik told news agency PTI."Political strategist Prashant Kishor is well-versed with the data and statistics... During their three-hour-long deliberations, this surely has come up for consideration," Malik said.

"There was no discussion on appointing him as a strategist of the NCP. PawarSahab wants to unite opposition parties. Efforts will be made towards this objective in coming days," Malik was also quoted as saying by ANI.

While Prashant Kishore said it was “just a private courtesy meeting over lunch and nothing to do with politics”, a senior NCP leader aware of the matter said on Friday that Pawar has been working to bring all opposition parties together against the Bharatiya Janata Party. “It is natural, the issue would be discussed,” the NCP leader said. Prashant Kishor's lunch meeting with the NCP leader came a day after Sharad Pawar said the Maharashtra VikasAghadi (MVA) will not only complete a five-year term but will also perform well in the LokSabha and state assembly elections. Pawar talked about the buzz over Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s meeting with Prime Minister Modi in Delhi.

"We have never worked with Shiv Sena in the past, but Maharashtra has been watching the party for the past many years...” Pawar said. "The Shiv Sena is a party that can be trusted, so even if people are raising doubts over the meeting, I have no doubt that the MVA government will not only complete its tenure of five years but also perform well in the LokSabha and Assembly elections and represent the state and the country," he added.