Opposition parties meeting in Bengaluru today; AAP to join after Congress backs it on ordinance fight

Bengaluru: Gearing up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has mobilized support from a total of 25 parties for the second opposition unity meeting to begin on Monday in Karnataka’s Bengaluru. Leaders of at least 26 opposition parties will converge at a Bengaluru hotel on July 17-18 as part of their efforts to present a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has been appointed in-charge to oversee all preparations for the meeting. Party sources said that arrangements have been made for all the opposition leaders to stay in a five-star hotel in the city.

According to the tentative schedule, Congress general secretary in-charge of communication Jairam Ramesh and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal will hold a joint press conference at 11 am on Monday. At the same time, all the opposition leaders will start arriving for the meeting in the afternoon. An informal meeting has been held at 6 pm followed by dinner at 8 pm. On July 18, the meeting will start at 11 am and will continue till 4 pm.

This will be followed by a press conference in which the campaign strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections may be announced. According to sources, the name of the opposition alliance will be decided in the Bengaluru meeting and the common minimum program will be discussed. Besides this, several committees are expected to be formed which will hold meetings to deliberate on various problems that may arise in the alliance. He said that various groups and sub-groups can also be formed.

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Sources said there could also be discussions on how to put up a common opposition candidate against the BJP in at least 80 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats, how to forge alliances in states and how to distribute tickets in key constituencies. “The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will also be discussed in the meeting,” he added.

All the big leaders of the opposition, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, are expected to attend the important opposition meeting in Bengaluru. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also confirmed its presence in the meeting on Sunday. This came after the Congress made its stand clear and said it would oppose the Centre’s ordinance on administrative services in Delhi if a bill is brought in Parliament to replace the ordinance.

Earlier, during the opposition meeting in Bihar’s Patna on June 23, a rift was seen between the AAP and the Congress after the Congress delayed its stand on the Centre’s ordinance. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also going to attend the opposition meeting despite a leg injury following the call of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Earlier, 16 opposition parties were invited to the Patna meeting and 15 of them attended the meeting. Apart from Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), Janata Dal (United) (JDU), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Indian Communist Party (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Samajwadi Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPIML), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), General The Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal were included in the list of invitees for the Patna meeting.

Rashtriya Lok Dal party chief Jayant Chowdhary, who had earlier distanced himself from the Patna meeting, is scheduled to attend the second meeting in Bengaluru on Monday. Apart from these, Congress has invited 10 new parties to the second opposition meeting in Bengaluru to increase its strength over the NDA. These included Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Kongu Desa Makkal Katchi (KDMK), Forward Bloc, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Are. Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerwadi) and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) of Tamil Nadu.

Sources said, “The Congress, the main host of this two-day meeting, is trying to make it grander than the meeting called by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 13.”