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Pawar meets Kharge, Gandhi as efforts to unite Opposition gain pace
NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi in the national capital on Thursday and pledged to take forward the process of opposition unity.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi in the national capital on Thursday and pledged to take forward the process of opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, even as the BJP took a dig at the outreach, saying efforts did not yield results previously.
Pawar’s meeting with Kharge came a day after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, met the Congress president and Gandhi to build a united opposition platform ahead of the 2024 elections.
“Stronger, together! We stand united for a better, brighter and an equal future for our people. Along with Shri @RahulGandhi ji met @NCPspeaks President, Shri @PawarSpeaks ji and had a discussion on the future course of action,” Kharge tweeted after the meeting on Thursday.
Addressing reporters later, he said: “Yesterday, you saw that two parties had held a meeting. Congress was also present there. Today, Pawar ji has also come and he is also of the opinion that we will try to talk to everyone (opposition parties) and try to move forward together.”
Kharge is expected to call a meeting of Opposition party leaders, barring BJD and YSRCP, in Delhi later this month.
Gandhi, who was also present at the press briefing, said: “Kharge ji and Pawar ji said that a process has started… that is just the beginning to unite the Opposition. All of us are committed towards this process.”
Speaking to reporters, Pawar said: “This is just the beginning. The talks with other important opposition parties, be it Mamata (Banerjee) ji or (Arvind) Kejriwal are yet to begin. A few people among us will be deputed to begin talks with them as well.”
The Congress party’s meeting with Pawar assumes significance as the NCP chief recently had downplayed the allegations of fraud and stock manipulation against the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group but later said that his party will not oppose the demand for a probe by a joint parliamentary committee, by the Congress and 19 opposition parties for the sake of unity.
The BJP, however, mocked the Opposition parties’ bid for unity as ‘thugbandhan’ (coalition of thugs) of parties who are neck-deep in corruption.
“The people are aware that these parties have no common policies or ideology and make false promises to win elections. Such experiments had failed in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” Union minister Anurag Thakur said in Shimla.
