The alliance may announce the composition of committees for specific actions such as communication and the 2024 general election campaign.
Members of the Opposition parties at their meeting in Bengaluru.
INDIA, the 26-party alliance stitched together to take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is likely to hold its third meeting in Mumbai on 31 August and 1 September.
“The opposition meeting will be a two-day affair and will take place on 31 August and 1 September with all leaders approving the dates,” a PTI reported sources as saying on Friday, 4 August.
The meeting would follow the Bengaluru format which had an informal first round of talks on day one and the main conclave the next day. A Powai hotel is likely to host the meeting, the sources said.
Incidentally, the Mumbai meeting will be INDIA’s first after the Supreme Court stayed a Surat court’s sentencing of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for two years in the 2019 “Modi surname” defamation case.
The Opposition bloc adopted the name INDIA — Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance — at the Bengaluru conference held on 17-18 July.
Several dates were discussed for the third INDIA meeting, but a consensus eluded the alliance as they were inconvenient for many leaders.
The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray, or UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar faction, ad the Congress — the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra — will jointly host the meeting.
Incidentally, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in New Delhi and discussed a host of issues, including the way forward for INDIA, the sources said.
The alliance’s first meeting in Patna on 23 June was hosted by Janata Dal (United) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and the Congress facilitated the second meeting in Bengaluru.
The alliance is also likely to announce the composition of committees for specific actions such as communication and the 2024 general election campaign.
A joint secretariat for better coordination among the parties will also be announced soon, the sources said.
During the meeting, the parties are expected to iron out differences as much as possible, especially in states where they are in a direct electoral confrontation.
While as many as 17 Opposition parties came together for the first time during the Patna meet, during the Bengaluru meet the number increased to 26.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were two of the major parties that joined the Bengaluru meeting.
The Opposition bloc resolved to fight the Lok Sabha elections together. At the Bihar meeting, they adopted a resolution outlining their intention to defeat the BJP and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences.
In Bengaluru, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced the name of the Opposition bloc, INDIA, after a nearly four-hour-long discussion.
The 26 parties resolved to safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution and defeat hatred and violence being unleashed against minorities. It also decided to stop rising crimes against women, Dalits, Adivasis, and Kashmiri Pandits.
Former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, and several others attended the two-day meeting held at a private hotel in Bengaluru.
The 26 opposition parties which are part of the opposition alliance are the Congress, TMC, DMK, AAP, JD(U), RJD, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party (SP), Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI(M), CPI, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), MDMK, Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), VCK, RSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).
Incidentally the NDA parties also held a meeting in New Delhi on 19 July.
The four regional parties in the two Telugu states — the BRS and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Telangana, and the YSRCP and the TDP in Andhra Pradesh — are neither in the BJP-led NDA nor among the Opposition INDIA as of yet.
However, the Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh is a BJP ally.
On 1 August, BRS supremo and Telangana chief minister has said in unambiguous terms: “We are neither with INDIA nor with NDA.”
Speaking to journalists at Kolhapur before leaving for Hyderabad, he said: “We will not be on the side of either group. We have our own friends.”
(With PTI inputs)
May 17, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
May 16, 2024
