New Delhi: Leaders of 15 Opposition parties are meeting in Patna Friday to find common ground ahead of the 2024 general elections, amid multiple jibes by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that these parties were too fragmented to show a united face or ever arrive at a consensus over who would be the alliance’s Prime Minister.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed party workers in Patna before the meeting and said the Opposition had come united and would defeat the BJP together.
“There is a war of ideology going on in India at the moment. On one hand, there is Congress’s ‘Bharat Jodo’, on the other is BJP-RSS’s ‘Bharat Todo’. This is why we have come to Bihar today,” he said, adding, “BJP is working to spread hate, violence and to break the country. Congress is working to spread love and unity.”
He also said the BJP “would not be visible in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan” which are up for elections later this year.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge exhorted the partymen to overcome differences and vote for the Congress.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who arrived Thursday evening, asserted the Opposition would fight like a family and take on the NDA “one to one”.
Banerjee, however, avoided questions on her reservations about the Congress party’s alliance with the Left in her state.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal, AAP’s Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin (DMK), Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren (JMM), Maharashtra’s former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Kashmiri leader (Shiv Sena-UBT), CPI chief D. Raja, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) head Mehbooba Mufti will be at the meeting.
There was a slight hiccup Thursday when Kejriwal threatened to walk out of the gathering if Congress did not lend support against a central ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi.
To this, Kharge responded Friday morning that a decision would be taken before the Parliament session.
Sources told news agency PTI that the Opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on mutual understanding.
The meeting is being hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (JDU) and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) at the chief minister’s 1, Aney Marg residence.
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