The opposition parties meeting in Bengaluru have to chalk out a roadmap for the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament and the upcoming 2024 General Elections. The top leaders from 24 opposition parties are likely to come for the opposition meeting, however, Sharad Pawar has opted out of the key meeting, stating that he will be busy since Maharashtra’s monsoon session will too start today.
There are also talks to set up a subcommittee for drafting a common minimum programme for all the parties who will participate in the meeting. It was earlier thought that seat sharing amongst the parties will discussed, however, it is now clear that such talks will not be a part of the agenda today.
These talks come in the background of division in Sharad Pawar’s NCP as his nephew Ajit Pawar and his followers joined the Maharashtra government and took up portfolios in the current government and the West Bengal Panchayat elections which saw widespread violence and claimed lives of a few party workers. The Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and the Left parties accused the Trinamool National Congress of orchestrating the violence.
After deliberating for days, the Aam Aadmi Party too said that they would join the opposition meeting after the Congress party said that they would support AAP in their campaign against the Central government’s order to hand back control of the bureaucracy to the LG.
Some of the top leaders who are expected to come for the meet are Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, MK Stalin, Tejaswi Yadav, Nitish Kumar, and Hemant Soren, while KCR, Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu and Neveen Patnaik are expected to stay away from the meet.
“The informal meeting on Monday evening will be a precursor to the main meeting on Tuesday. The parties will look at the common programmes that can be undertaken, common issues that should be highlighted and prepare a road map for the near future,” said a senior Congress leader. “We will also discuss and evolve a strategy for the monsoon session of Parliament. Issues such as the violence in Manipur, the train accident at Balasore, the assault on the federal structure and the role of governors are some of the key issues of common interest for all participants,” the Congress leader added.
