Sonia Gandhi may attend grand alliance meet in boost for opposition front

The December 10 meeting — a day before assembly election results are announced — will not have any set agenda and leaders will be able to raise and discuss all issues.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to join the meeting of the opposition parties on December 10, a day before the assembly election results are out.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi addresses a public meeting for the campaign of the 2018 Telangana assembly elections near Hyderabad on November 23, 2018. (AFP)

Congress leaders said that apart from Gandhi, party president Rahul Gandhi is almost certain to join the gathering, seen as an effort to cobble up Opposition strength for the 2019 elections.

But the two leaders also added that the meeting will not have any set agenda and leaders will be able to raise and discuss all issues.

“Apart from talks on 2019 election, talks may also veer around the winter session of Parliament that will start from December 11,” one leader said.

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Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was earlier an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has met a spectrum of leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar, DMK’s M K Stalin, West Bengal CM and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, former PM and Janata Dal-Secular chief H D Deve Gowda and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati to forge a front against the BJP.

Results of the assembly elections being held in five states of Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram will be announced on December 11.