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26 Opposition parties meet to build a united front
Leaders of 26 opposition parties gathered in Bengaluru for a second mega meeting to forge a common platform against the BJP ahead of the 2024 general elections. They discussed key issues and joint campaigns, and even considered new names for the grouping. The meeting will continue on Tuesday for further talks and concrete measures. The opposition parties aim to work together on an agenda of social justice, inclusive development, and national welfare.
Leaders of 26 parties gathered in Bengaluru on Monday for a second mega meeting of the Opposition, which identified key issues,hammered out the idea of joint campaigns and even tossed around new names for the grouping in an attempt to forge a common platform to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Leaders deliberated on the agenda for nearly 1.5 hours before a dinner on Monday night. After the informal discussions on Monday when a plan to send a delegation to Manipur also came up, the main meeting at Bengaluru’s Taj West End hotel will continue on Tuesday when leaders from 26 parties gather for more talks and concrete measures.
“Well begun is half done! Like-minded opposition parties shall closely work together to foster an agenda of social justice, inclusive development and national welfare,“ Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted .
Meeting for the second time after another similar event in Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s residence in June, the leaders sat in front of a huge banner with a “United We Stand” slogan, which was also featured on posters that dotted the streets of Bengaluru.
“It was a good meeting,” West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee later said.
Opposition leaders from across the country flew into Bengaluru on Monday for the meeting, whose second day will coincide with a meeting of the rival National Democratic Alliance (NDA) grouping. In the Patna meeting on June 23, all but one of the 15 attending parties vowed to jointly take on the BJP with a common agenda. That meeting was marked by acrimony between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress after the former refused to attend the joint press conference and asked the latter to make its stance clear on a controversial ordinance that gave the Centre control over Delhi’s bureaucracy.
With the Congress announcing on Sunday that it will oppose the ordinance when it comes to Parliament in the upcoming monsoon session, the Bengaluru meeting is likely to be more cordial. AAP leaders such as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, attended the meeting
“The alliance of like-minded opposition parties is giving sleepless nights to the ruling BJP. The coming together of leaders of non-BJP parties have made them to live in fear,” Chadha was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. “The agenda of the meeting will be discussed during the meeting in Bengaluru”.
The Patna meeting was attended by 15 parties, including the Congress, Janata Dal (United), Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, and Aam Aadmi Party, among others. Another 11 – Rashtriya Lok Dal, MDMK, VCK, RSP, KDMK, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (J), Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and MMK – have joined the Bengaluru leg. Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar is scheduled to join the meeting on Tuesday.
“After Patna, we the secular and democratic forces are here in beautiful Bengaluru... Together, we shall safeguard democracy and ensure a brighter future for our great nation,” tweeted Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin.
The meeting will hope to build on the initial work done in Patna to bolster Opposition efforts to take on the BJP ahead of the 2024 general elections. In Patna, leaders aware of developments said that the parties had largely agreed to field joint candidates against the BJP in as many seats as possible and create a common ideological platform. If this happens, this will be the first time in decades that parties would come together at the national level to take on the ruling party.
Venugopal indicated that a possible name for this alliance might be discussed but added that seat arrangements between parties — the most crucial aspect of any grouping — will not happen “in one, two or three meetings”. Many Opposition leaders are of the view that seat-sharing talks should happen at the state level as no pan-national pact would be possible among all Opposition parties.
At a broader level, the parallel meetings of the Opposition and the ruling coalition also mark the return of coalition politics to the national centre stage just months before the general elections.
Venugopal said the Bengaluru meeting would help the Opposition “move forward unitedly” and give “solutions for raging issues faced by the common people”, adding that the event will be “a game-changer in Indian politics”.
He downplayed the contentious issue of leadership, and sent a message to fence sitters such as the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party, and said, “There is no place for fence sitters in these times. They have to decide on which side they want to be.”
Vewnugopal admitted that arriving at a consensus over issues might take time. “There are 26 political parties. We are trying to achieve unity on various issues. Whatever issues are coming before us, we will discuss and resolve. We will (collectively) take all decisions but the Congress alone can’t take any decision,” he added.
The meeting might zero in on common issues such as unemployment, rise in food prices and alleged misuse of federal agencies. Of critical importance will be the upcoming Parliament session, which starts on July 20, where parties will need to maintain the momentum of any new-found unity.
Venguopal indicated that issues such as the Manipur violence, unemployment, and price rise will be key for the Opposition. “We are all united by a common purpose. To protect democracy, to ensure constitutional rights and the independence of our institutions. The BJP government wants to silence the Opposition’s voice by misusing agencies. Disqualification of Rahul Gandhi (from Parliament) is one of the biggest examples of how the BJP is trying to muzzle us. They (the BJP) want to destabilise democratically elected governments by using the CBI and the ED,” he said.
Left leader Sitaram Yechury ruled out any alliance with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and said that secular parties along with the Left and the Congress will take on the BJP as well as the TMC in the state.
“We have made a significant progress at the Patna meeting. Now we have to take this forward in Bengaluru. All parties are united and we will work together. We must chalk out joint programmes for the next 9 months. The initial discussion was fruitful,” said Communist Party of India leader D Raja.
BJP leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi targeted the attempts at forging an alliance and said that on one hand there is the “tried and tested” leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and on the other hand there is Congress’s “dagger of deceit”. He said that it was a case of unity among parties that are suffering from depression after electoral defeats and there is “guarantee of separation”.
