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Congress-AAP warm embrace as Raghav Chadha arrives in Bengaluru for Oppn meet
Around 26 like-minded political parties including the Congress, AAP, DMK, JMM and TMC are attending the two-day brainstorming session in Bengaluru.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha on Monday shared a warm hug when the latter arrived at the venue of the Opposition's second mega gathering in Bengaluru. In the video shared by news agency ANI, Chadha can be seen greeted by Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, deputy CM DK Shivakumar along with Venugopal upon his arrival at the meeting's venue in Bengaluru, where the Congress general secretary hugged the AAP MP.
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The cheering gesture from the two leaders comes after a bitter war of words on the issue of the ordinance through which the Centre wants to wrest control of the administrative powers in the national capital from the AAP-led Delhi government. The Aam Aadmi Party had threatened to skip the second opposition meeting if the Congress didn't reveal its stand on the controversial ordinance. After weeks of suspense, the Congress, however, made it clear that it will oppose the bill in Parliament, paving the way for AAP's presence at the Bengaluru meet.
Around 26 like-minded political parties including the Congress, AAP, DMK, JMM and TMC are attending the two-day brainstorming session in Bengaluru from July 17-18 to chalk out a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The agenda of this meeting include setting up a sub-committee for drafting the common minimum program and communication points for the alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and also discussing the process for a decision on seat sharing on a state-to-state basis. The agenda for the talks would be finalised during discussions before a dinner meeting hosted by Siddaramaiah, reported ANI.
Read here: Opposition leaders converge in Bengaluru. Seat sharing, alliance name on agenda?
Posters with “United We Stand” slogan were placed along the streets of Bengaluru with pictures of opposition leaders, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, TMC's Mamata Banerjee, NCP's Sharad Pawar, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, DMK chief M K Stalin and leaders of Left and some regional outfits.
Ahead of the meeting, Congress cleared its stand on the Centre's ordinance regarding the control of administrative powers in the national capital saying that it has nothing to do with the meeting of the like-minded parties.
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday said that the party has always stood up to protect the constitutional structure, so it did in the matter of ordinance against the Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal.
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The Bengaluru meeting comes less than a month after the first such high-profile meeting hosted by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, which took place in Patna, Bihar on June 23.
