E-Paper
Leaders of 26 Opposition parties to hold their main meeting in Bengaluru today
Leaders of 26 Opposition parties are set to hold their main meeting on Tuesday to discuss concrete measures and forge a common platform to challenge the BJP in the 2024 national elections. The meeting follows an informal gathering in Bengaluru on Monday, where discussions centered around joint campaigns and a new name for the group. The Opposition leaders are expected to build on previous work done in Patna, where they agreed to field joint candidates against the BJP and create a common ideological platform.
Leaders of 26 Opposition parties are due to hold their main meeting on Tuesday and discuss concrete measures a day after they assembled in Bengaluru on Monday for the second such gathering as part of an attempt to forge a common platform to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 national elections.
The idea of joint campaigns and new names for the grouping was deliberated in informal discussions before dinner on Monday night. A plan to send a delegation to Manipur also came up on Monday as the leaders sat in front of a banner that read: “United We Stand.”
Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray first mooted a name for the grouping. At the Patna meeting last month, he said they should not be called mere Opposition parties. He argued they have a constructive agenda and are patriotic and democratic in nature.
The second day of the Bengaluru meeting will coincide with that of the rival ruling National Democratic Alliance.
The first meeting of the Opposition grouping was held at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s residence in Patna in June where all but one of the 15 attending parties vowed to jointly take on the BJP with a common agenda.
Acrimony between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress marked the Patna meeting. The AAP refused to attend the joint press conference in Patna. It asked the Congress to make its stance clear on a controversial ordinance that gave the Union government control over Delhi’s bureaucracy.
The Congress announced on Sunday that it will oppose the ordinance when it comes to Parliament during the monsoon session. AAP leaders such as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha are attending the Bengaluru meeting.
The Opposition leaders are expected to build on the initial work done in Patna to bolster efforts to take on the BJP. HT reported the parties in Patna largely agreed to field joint candidates against the BJP in as many seats as possible and create a common ideological platform.
Congress leader KC Venugopal on Monday indicated that a possible name for this alliance might be discussed but added that seat arrangements between parties 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.
