Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi welcomed by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar upon their arrival at HAL airport ahead of the united opposition meeting .
26 Opposition parties are likely to attend the 2-day brainstorming session in Bengaluru from July 17 to take on the BJP, which is having its own meeting on July 18 with the NDA partners at a five-star hotel in New Delhi.
17th. July, 2023, Bengaluru is set to hog the political limelight yet again with the upcoming meeting of Opposition parties looking to draw up plans for a joint fight against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. This is the second time in the past two months that Bengaluru will host a number of political leaders since several of them gathered for the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The meeting in Bengaluru follows the first such gathering in Patna last month to forge an anti-BJP political front. While this meeting was scheduled to be held at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, it was moved to Bengaluru due to the weather conditions in the hill State.
Party sources said that more meetings are likely to be held before arriving at a consensus on seat sharing, probable common programme and strategy to highlight the failure of BJP government at the Centre.
Meanwhile, a new, refurbished National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP is in the works, and its first outing is planned on July 18 with a meeting of the alliance partners at a five-star hotel in New Delhi.
Leaders of 26 parties attend dinner meeting hosted by Karnataka CM.
Leaders of 26 parties from across India will huddle at a second conclave of the Opposition in Bengaluru on July 18 to forge an electoral alliance for a battle against the NDA led by the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2024.
Leaders of 15 parties attended the last meeting of the Opposition parties held at Patna in Bihar on June 23. Ahead of the meeting, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hosted a dinner for leaders of Opposition parties. More than 50 leaders from different parties attended the meeting on Monday.
Prominent leaders attended the dinner meeting including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, former AICC presidents Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashvi Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former chief ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and CPI general secretary D Raja.
Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar had not attended the dinner meeting. However, the veteran leader is expected to show his presence on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, AICC general secretary (organisation) K. C. Venugopal said the unity of non-NDA parties would be a “game-changer” of Indian political scenario and it would discuss a common agenda to defeat the BJP in the next general elections.
Meeting begins.
Opposition dinner meeting begins in Bengaluru- MK Stalin, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, Bhagwant Mann and Lalu Prasad Yadav among those present.