Oppn meeting on June 23 in Patna, Rahul, Kharge & Mamata among leaders to attend
The June 12 meeting was postponed on account of Rahul Gandhi and party president Kharge as well as DMK chief Stalin not being able to attend the meeting.
After two days of postponement of the June 12 opposition meet in Patna, grand alliance leaders on Wednesday announced that the proposed meeting will be held on June 23 in the state capital with participation of galaxy of opposition leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
In a hurriedly called presser, JD(U) national president and MP Rajiv Rajan Singh alias Lallan Singh and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said that the opposition meeting to form a combined anti BJP front to take on BJP led NDA in 2024 parliament election will be held on June 23 in Patna.
“We are going to have a mega meeting of major opposition and like-minded parties including Congress top leaders in Patna on June 23,” they said.
Singh said Congress leader Gandhi, who is now on a US tour, has given his consent to attend the meeting along with Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge.
He said other notable top leaders to participate in the meeting include West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and former CM Uddhav Thackeray, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin and top Left party leaders including Sitaram Yechury of CPM, D Raja of CPI and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI-ML( liberation).
Tejashwi and the JD(U) president said the meeting would be important event for the country to send across a message of opposition unity to fight against the BJP’s alleged autocratic way of governance and attempt to weaken the constitution as well as democratic fabric of the nation. “ There is an undeclared emergency in the country under the rule of BJP-led NDA at the Centre and those questioning the government’s policies are being harassed,” Tejashwi said. JD(U) president aired the same.
The announcement of the proposed opposition meeting by JD(U) president and deputy CM today by confirming the participation of galaxy of leaders is seen as a bid by the GA leaders to dispel notions that the initiative taken by chief minister Nitish Kumar to combine the opposition parties to take on BJP was falling apart in wake of the postponement of the June 12 meeting.
The June 12 meeting was postponed on Sunday on account of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Kharge as well as DMK chief Stalin not being able to attend the meeting for their pre scheduled other engagements. Gandhi is on a ten-day tour to the US and is expected to return to India after June 12.
There were also reports of Congress hardening its stand before the proposed meeting on June 12 by putting a condition of having its own venue and date , if Rahul Gandhi and Kharge were to attend the proposed meeting.
It is also said that Congress top leadership has proposed that it would not contest less than 350 seats if it chooses to join the proposed front even as the GA constituents are keen that the national party should contest 250 nationwide. State leaders said initial talks of Congress having a smaller number of seats in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and UP was again a thorny issue.
JD(U)’s chief spokesperson K C Tyagi , earlier in the day, had said that the meeting would be held in Patna and also remarked that ‘everybody joining the proposed front has to make sacrifices in terms of seat sharing”.
Meanwhile, asked about reports that Congress is keen on contesting 350 seats as a major partner in the proposed front, JD(U) national president said all such matters related to seat sharing would be discussed later.
