Amid the ongoing differences and tug of war between the leaders of the opposition parties during respective state assembly elections, as many as 28 leaders from 15 political parties have participated in a grand meet to chalk out a strategy against the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming general elections scheduled to be held in 2024 on Friday, June 23 in Patna.
The leaders from various political affiliations such as the Indian National Congress (INC), AAP, RJD, JDU, DMK, TMC, PDP, NC, Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction), NCP, CPM, CPI, CPI (ML), SP, and JMM have attended the grand meet and vowed to stand united in their quest to remove the BJP led NDA in the upcoming Lok Sabha election of 2024.
As per the reports, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal have represented the Indian National Congress (INC), while Delhi’s CM Arvind Kejriwal, Raghav Chadha, Punjab’s CM Bhagwant Mann and Sanjay Singh from AAP have attended the mega meet facilitated by Bihar’s CM Nitish Kumar.
Other leaders from the different political parties in attendance were Mamta Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee from TMC, Akhilesh Yadav from SP, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav from RJD, MK Stalin and TR Balu from DMK, Mehbooba Mufti from PDP, Omar Abdullah from NC, Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule and Prafful Patel from NCP, Uddhav Thakrey, Aditya Thakrey and Sanjay Raut from Shiv Sena and Hemant Soren from JMM.
Among the left, D Raja from CPI, Sitaram Yechuri from CPM, and Dipankar Bhattacharya from CPI (ML) were also in attendance in the grand meet held in Patna where leaders from the opposition pledged to chalk out a common minimum programme for the opposition unity.
Briefing the media after the meeting, the opposition leaders from various parties asserted that the opposition would stand united in their fight against the BJP. Interacting with the press Bengal’s CM Mamta Banerjee, while alleging the ruling BJP for vendetta politics, said that “We have agreed that we will stand united in the fight against the autocratic attitude of the government if they are voted to power in this election (2024) then next there will not be any election so we have decided that we will stand together, we will fight unitedly, we will further meet in Shimla in July.”
The Bengal’s CM further said that ” The History started from here the BJP wants to change the History, but we want to save the History from Bihar.
Meanwhile, sharing his views on the meeting CPI leader Sitaram Yechuri said that the “BJP is trying to change the secular and democratic character of the country to a fascist Hindutvawadi country, they are attacking the pillars of the constitution, we have to save our country from these efforts.”
Though a number of opposition leaders, while briefing the press meet held after the grand meet, asserted the opposition unity Delhi’s CM Arvind Kejriwal and his partymen were seen absent from the press briefing raising doubt over his inclusion in the grand alliance.
Earlier, while speaking with the ANI, AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar while expressing her views on the stand of INC on the ordinance brought by the central government pertaining to the transfer of officials in Delhi, said that “We have got info that Rahul Gandhi and BJP have done an agreement, Congress should clear its stand against this unconstitutional Ordinance, why they are taking so long in doing so?”
Meanwhile, Union Minister Amit Shah, in a rally held in Jammu earlier in the day, said that ” there is a photo session going on in Patna where leaders from various political parties have come together on a stage, they want to send out a message that they will challenge the BJP and the NDA. I would like to tell the leaders of the opposition that shake as many hand as you like but unity among yourselves will never be possible and even if you will unite Narendra Modi will be sworn in as the Prime Minister with 300 seats.”
Earlier, while interacting with the media, BJP leader from West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, also slammed the opposition meeting and termed the opposition meeting as a meeting of nepotism, familyism, and corrupt people. The BJP stalwart further said that this meeting is not going to make any difference and Narendra Modi will be back in power with a thumping majority.
It is to be noted that Bihar’s CM Nitish Kumar has been meeting the leaders of the different political parties lately to gather them all under one roof to fight the ruling BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Though despite his efforts and tall claims of opposition unity, many leaders, including KCR and Naveen Patnaik, have not only decided to skip the meet, but AAP dilemma pertaining to joining the alliance also seems to continue as the Kejriwal-led party chose to remain absent from the press conference over their differences from the congress party reportedly.
Earlier, the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar also suffered a huge setback when Jeetan Ram Manjhi led Hindustan Awami Morcha (HAM) left the grand alliance of JDU-RJD-Congress and the left parties, alleging that the party was only left with the option of either merging with the JDU or to left the grand alliance.
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