Lagatar24 Desk
Patna, June 23: In order to lay out a plan for the creation of an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, top leaders of opposition parties met in Patna on Friday.
Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar and a member of the JD(U), is hosting the meeting with Tejashwi Yadav, a member of the RJD. With Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress, and Lalu Prasad, the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, standing on each side of him, Kumar presided over the gathering as host.
More than 30 politicians from 15 opposition parties reportedly attended the meeting at the chief minister of Bihar’s 1, Aney Marg house, sources said.
The meeting was viewed as a springboard for the Opposition parties to unite and challenge the Narendra Modi-led BJP, according to the sources.
The sensitive subject of seat sharing and leadership problems should be avoided for the time being, they said, and instead, a fundamental framework and path for Opposition unity is likely to be discussed.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (TMC), her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann (AAP), Tamil Nadu’s M K Stalin (DMK), Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren (JMM), Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Maharashtra’s former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), and NCP president Sharad Pawar are among the leaders attending the first high-level Opposition meeting.
The meeting also includes PDP, CPI (M), CPI, CPI (ML) and National Conference leaders.
Sharing visuals from the meeting, Kharge, in a tweet in Hindi, said, “Protecting the Constitution and democracy is our sole responsibility. Our meeting is to give a new direction to the country.” The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has reportedly threatened to leave the meeting if the Congress does not commit to opposing the Centre’s law on the control of administrative services in Delhi, exposing rifts in the opposition ranks a day before the important discussions.
All eyes will be on the meeting’s agenda to see if the AAP’s request that the Center’s ordinance on the control of administrative services in the national capital as a major topic of discussion will be carried out.
When the ordinance is put to the test in Parliament by the BJP-led Centre, the Congress has so far kept its support for the AAP unclear by keeping it close to its chest.
Before leaving for Patna on Friday morning, Kharge was questioned about the ordinance problem and the AAP’s ultimatum. He said that his party would make a decision before Parliament’s Monsoon session and questioned why it was being discussed elsewhere when it was a topic that concerned Parliament.
“Opposing or proposing it does not happen outside, it happens in Parliament. Before Parliament begins, all parties decide what issues they have to work on together. They know it and even their leaders come to our all-party meetings. I don’t know why is there so much publicity about it outside,” Kharge said.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, declared while addressing to party members prior to the meeting that the opposition parties will work together to defeat the BJP in the general elections of 2024.
He claimed that there is an ideological war taking place in India and accused the BJP of trying to “divide India and spread hate and violence”.
“On one hand, there is the Congress’ ‘Bharat Jodo’ ideology and on the other, the BJP and RSS’ ‘Bharat Todo’ thinking,” Gandhi said addressing party workers and leaders at the party office in Patna.
“You know that hate cannot be countered with hate. It can be defeated only with love. The Congress is working for uniting the country and spreading love,” he said, adding, “That is why we have come to Bihar because the DNA of the Congress is in Bihar.” “All Opposition parties have come here and together we are going to defeat the BJP,” Gandhi said.
The former Congress chief claimed that despite the BJP leaders’ speeches and travels throughout Karnataka, the outcome is clear to all.
“As soon as the Congress stood united, the BJP disappeared in Karnataka. I am saying it from this stage that the BJP will be nowhere in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and the Congress will win,” Gandhi claimed.
Kharge said at the same event that “if we win in Bihar, we will win the country” and asked party members to put aside their differences and work together to win the general elections in 2024.
Before the conference, Chief Minister Stalin of Tamil Nadu referred to the opposition gathering as a “war cry” against a “fascist and autocratic regime.” Only the Samajwadi Party represents Uttar Pradesh at the meeting; Mayawati, the leader of the BSP, was not invited, and Jayant Chaudhary, the leader of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, chose to attend a family event instead.
A maximum of 80 MPs from Uttar Pradesh are sent to the Lok Sabha.
Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, had earlier meetings with Lalu Yadav, the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Rabri Devi, the former chief minister of Bihar, and Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar.
She told reporters outside Tejashwi Yadav’s residence when asked about what will happen at the meeting on Thursday, “I cannot say anything now. We have come here as we will fight together, one-to-one (against the BJP). We will fight together like a family.”
