New Delhi: In a massive show of unity ahead of the crucial parliamentary election next year, leaders of 15 opposition parties including chief ministers like Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, and Arvind Kejriwal will meet on Friday in Patna, the capital city of Bihar.
For the last few months, Nitish Kumar has been making efforts to stitch an alliance of opposition parties to stop the BJP juggernaut led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. According to PTI, Opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasize on building a common ground.
A day before the crucial deliberations, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asserted that the Opposition parties will fight together “like a family” to take on the NDA “one to one”. Leaders of 15 parties including half-a-dozen chief ministers are expected to attend the deliberations, as per PTI.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sources, on the other hand, said that the party will walk out of the meeting if the Congress does not promise its support against the Centre’s ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi.
Meanwhile, from Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party would be the only party attending the meeting, as BSP supremo Mayawati has not been extended an invitation and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary is set to skip the meeting due to a family programme.
“I am sure that this meeting will prove to be an important milestone in the path of opposition unity,” the RLD chief said.
According to PTI, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann (AAP), Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin (DMK), Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren (JMM), Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Maharashtra’s former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), and NCP president Sharad Pawar are among the leaders expected to attend the first high-level opposition meeting.
Leaders of the PDP, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), and the National Conference are also expected to attend the meeting.
The conclave will be hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (JDU) and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) at the chief minister’s 1, Aney Marg residence.
West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee, who arrived in Patna in the evening, met Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav, former Bihar CM Rabri Devi and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav here.
Asked what will happen at tomorrow’s meeting, she told reporters outside Tejashwi Yadav’s residence, “I cannot say anything now. We have come here as we will fight together, one to one (against the BJP).” “We will fight together like a collective family,” she asserted.
Later in the evening, Chief Minister Kumar met Banerjee.
Kejriwal and Mann also arrived in Patna on Thursday evening and visited the Patna Sahib gurdwara. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti reached Patna on Thursday morning for the meeting.
The agency reported that the BJP has been continuously taking swipes at the Opposition over differences within its ranks and repeatedly jabbing it over the leadership question as to who will be their prime ministerial face.
Hitting back at the BJP’s criticism, Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh said that the issue of who would be the prime ministerial face of the Opposition alliance is not important as the leadership question can be tackled collectively after defeating the BJP in the 2024 elections.
Singh also claimed that when Opposition parties unite and contest the general elections next year, the BJP will come down to less than 100 seats.
