New Delhi: With regional parties raising the pitch for forming a non-Congress, non-BJP third front ahead of the 2019 elections, UPA chairperson and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided to invite leaders of all Opposition parties for dinner here on March 13 in a fresh bid to forge a united front against the BJP.

Sources said that senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel is contacting leaders of Opposition parties on behalf of Mrs Gandhi to extend an invitation for the dinner.

“It will not only be a dinner, but it will also showcase the strength of the Opposition parties that would like to come together to form a front against the misrule of the BJP,” a senior Congress leader said.

Several Opposition leaders have confirmed their attendance, a Congress insider said, declining to go into specifics.

He said that Mrs Gandhi is keen to host all top Opposition party leaders, including Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who is yet to accept the invitation.

Parties like the Telugu Desam Party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Trinamul and the DMK have been in talks over formation of a third front.

Ms Banerjee has repeatedly questioned the capability of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to lead any Opposition alliance against the BJP and has showed interest in herself becoming the face of such a grouping.

TRS chief and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has backed Ms Banerjee for leading the third front, especially after the Congress Party’s drubbing in the three Northeast states.

Mrs Gandhi’s dinner diplomacy is being seen as a desperate attempt by the Congress to prevent regional parties from drifting away from it ahead of the 2019 polls. The plan to host the dinner was announced on a day when Mr Gandhi returned after a short break in Italy.

Mrs Gandhi was very active in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as she egged on her party MPs to raise the PNB scam and other issues effectively.

The Congress also participated in protests near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the Parliament House complex where MPs from a number of other parties held an agitation.