Leaders of 24 political parties to attend 2nd Opposition parties’ meet in Bengaluru on 17 and 18 July

The first meeting of Opposition parties was held in Bihar’s capital Patna on 23 June.

Related: MK Stalin, Kharge, Abdullah call for ‘Opposition unity’ against BJP

‘Sonia Gandhi might attend’

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi is also expected to attend a dinner on 17 July where leaders of these parties will be present.

“A meeting of leaders of all Opposition parties (in the country) will be held on July 17 and 18, as already announced. All the leaders are going to come. Mallikarjun Kharge (AICC President) has requested Sonia Gandhi to participate in this meeting. We have got a message that she will be participating in this meeting,” Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had said on Monday, 10 July.

While announcing the dates of the Opposition meeting, Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said “We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces”.

“After a hugely successful all-Opposition meeting in Patna, we will be holding the next meeting in Bengaluru on 17 and 18 July, 2023. We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces and present a bold vision to take the country forward,” Venugopal had said.

On 23 June, as many as 15 Opposition parties came together for the first time in Independent India and resolved to fight the Lok Sabha elections together.

Sixteen parties were invited for the meeting and the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary could not attend due to a family function.

Related: There cannot be a strong Opposition without Congress: Tariq Anwar

‘To defeat BJP’

At the Patna meeting, the Opposition parties also resolved to work with flexibility by setting aside their differences.

Leaders of political parties — including the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena (UBT), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Samajwadi Party (SP), National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), and JD(U) — participated in the meeting.

After arriving at a consensus, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar said the leaders would meet in the next few days to give a final shape to their plan of fighting together.

“We have decided to prepare a common agenda and will take decisions in the next meeting on how to move forward and will have to evolve separate plans for every state, and we will work together to dethrone the BJP at the Centre,” he said.

Also read: Opposition parties unite for a coalition; BJP cites ‘fear of Modi’

The BRS, Congress conundrum

At the Patna meeting, there were notes of discord as well, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi unequivocally declaring that his party would have nothing to do with the Opposition unity efforts if Telangana’s ruling BRS was a part of the coalition.

Voicing his party’s suspicion that the BRS was the B-team of the BJP, Rahul Gandhi described the party’s abbreviated name as BJP-Rishtedar Samiti.

However, following the Patna meeting, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav flew down to Hyderabad on 3 July and had a lengthy discussion with Telangana Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao.

At the meeting held at the Telangana chief minister’s official residence, Pragati Bhavan, in Hyderabad, they are said to have discussed the need to craft a credible alternative to the BJP.

Akhilesh Yadav is understood to have briefed him about the contents of the meeting in Patna and invited him to be present at the next meeting of the Opposition parties in Bengaluru.

Also read: KCR hits out at Opposition parties at Solapur public meeting

(With PTI inputs)