Opposition meeting in Patna highlights: 'Drama troupe gathering'- Anurag Thakur

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav of The Rashtriya Janata Dal during mega opposition parties meeting at Patna on Friday

Opposition meeting in Patna: The stage is set for the opposition leaders to get into a huddle in Patna to chalk out the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is hosting the crucial meeting in which most of the non-BJP parties, regional and national, are taking part as they plan to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the next year's general election. The meeting is currently underway at the chief minister's official residence in Bihar's capital.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Maharashtra's former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar are among the leaders expected to attend the first high-level opposition meeting.

Odisha chief minister Navin Patnaik, his Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekhar Rao, and BSP supremo Mayawati will be conspicuous by their absence during the meeting. While Patnaik and KCR decided to give it a miss, Mayawati wasn't invited to the meeting. JD(U) chief spokesperson K C Tyagi said “We have invited those parties that are willing to fight against the BJP in 2024.”