Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 23: Seventeen opposition parties today resolved to fight the next Lok Sabha polls together to “dethrone the BJP” after an over four-hour-long meeting in Patna. The next meeting will be held in Shimla to chart the future course of action, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said at a joint press conference, flanked by leaders of the parties including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, reports India Today.
Describing it as a “good meeting”, Nitish Kumar, who played host, said, “We have come together in the national interest”. The remarks were echoed by other top leaders.
Conspicuously absent from the post-meeting press conference, though, was Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who hit out at the Congress over its “silence” on the Delhi ordinance issue.
The party had, on Thursday, threatened to boycott the opposition meeting if the Congress failed to pledge its support in fighting the ordinance. It again made it clear this afternoon that its participation in any future meetings was contingent upon the Congress “publicly denouncing the Black Ordinance and declaring that all 31 of its Rajya Sabha MPs will oppose the ordinance in the Rajya Sabha”.
“It is high time that the Congress decides whether it stands with the people of Delhi or with the Modi government,” the AAP said in a statement.
Earlier today, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had said that a decision on the ordinance would be taken “before Parliament begins”. I don’t know why there is so much publicity about it outside,’ Kharge had said.
“We are working on a common agenda for all and are preparing a Common Minimum Programme. We will meet in Shimla next around July 12,” the Congress chief said after the meeting. Sources say that seat-sharing may be discussed in the next meeting.
Acknowledging “differences” among various parties, Rahul Gandhi, at the press conference, said, “We have decided to work together with flexibility to protect our ideology”.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said that the first meeting was organised in Patna as “Whatever starts from Patna, takes the shape of the public movement”, alluding to socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement in 1974.
“We are all united and will fight unitedly against the BJP,” she said, adding that “the BJP wants to change history but we’ll ensure that history is saved”.
(Courtesy: India Today)
