With posters of 'United We Stand' all around them, 26 Opposition parties converged in Karnataka's capital Bengaluru for a two-day brainstorming session to chalk out a common programme and agitational agenda to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The two-day brainstorming session began on Monday with a dinner meeting attended by top leaders of the Opposition parties in attendance.
The Bengaluru meeting is the second such gathering aimed to generate Opposition unity. The first meeting was held last month in Patna.
Seated amid banners reading 'United We Stand' were Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, among others.
The dinner meeting serves as a starting point for the two-day brainstorming session where discussions were held to finalise the agenda for the formal talks to be held on Tuesday morning, reported PTI.
"It was a good meeting," said Mamata.
Earlier on Monday, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who is hosting the two-day conclave, tweeted, "May the seeds sown in this peaceful garden of harmony (Karnataka) bear the fruit to restore secular, socialist, and democratic values as enshrined in our Constitution."
Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also holding a meeting of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Tuesday in a parallel show of strength.
A game changer: Congress
The Congress party said Opposition unity would be "a game changer" for the Indian political scenario.
The Congress party took a swipe at the BJP, saying those who used to talk of defeating the Opposition parties alone are now making attempts to breathe new life into the NDA which had become a "ghost".
Claiming that the BJP was rattled, Kharge said all Opposition alliance partners will unitedly fight against the BJP and thwart attempts to divide them.
Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, addressing a presser alongside Jairam Ramesh, earlier on Monday said people will teach a lesson to those who have totally failed in governance and cheated them with false promises.
"That is why we have come here... We are very sure that this is going to be a game changer for Indian political scenario and we are very happy to see that after the Patna meeting those who were saying that 'we are very comfortable in defeating the entire Opposition alone', have now started meetings, that is the real success of opposition unity," Venugopal said.
The agenda of dinner meeting
The dinner meeting would serve as a platform to formalise the agenda for the main meeting on Tuesday.
There is a proposal to set up a subcommittee for drafting a common minimum programme and communication points for the Opposition alliance for the 2024 general elections, sources told PTI.
There will also be talks about setting up a subcommittee for chalking out the joint programme of parties that includes rallies, conventions and agitations. A plan to discuss the process for deciding seat sharing on a state-to-state basis is also on the table. The opposition leaders may also discuss the issue of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and suggest reforms to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Opposition leaders also plan to suggest a name for the alliance.
Who all are attending the event?
In all, 26 parties are attending the mega-event in Bengaluru.
Sources told PTI that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar was the only leader among the invitees not present at the meeting at Taj West End Hotel and he would arrive on Tuesday along with his daughter Supriya Sule.
The parties present at the meeting included Congress, TMC, AAP, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), DMK, RJD, Samajwadi Party, National Conference (NC), People Democratic Party (PDP), CPI-M, CPI, and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
Besides the leaders mentioned above, those in attendance included Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Farooq Abdullah (NC), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), and Jayant Chaudhary (RLD), reported PTI.
Around 15 parties had attended the meeting in Bihar last month hosted by Nitish. This time, there are 26 parties.
Among the parties which will have been added this time are MDMK, KDMK, VCK, RSP, CPI-ML, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph) and Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) of Krishna Patel, and Tamil Nadu's Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) led by M H Jawahirullah, reported PTI.
The total strength of the Opposition parties attending this meeting is around 150 in Lok Sabha, reported PTI.
Differences among the Opposition parties
Despite talks of Opposition unity and ambitious targets, there remains internal contradictions within the grouping.
The TMC and the Left parties don't get along with each other and are stiff rivals of each other in West Bengal. Similarly, the state units of AAP and Congress are fierce rivals in Delhi and Punjab. The AAP toppled the Congress governments at both the places. The PDP and NC have been traditional rivals in Jammu and Kashmir, though the two are now on a common platform in their opposition to the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of J&K from a state to a Union Territory (UT).
Arriving for the Opposition meeting, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury ruled out any alliance with the TMC in West Bengal and said that secular parties along with the Left and the Congress will take on the BJP as well as the TMC in the state, reported PTI.
Yechury, however, added that the endeavour is to reduce the split in opposition votes and they will chalk out a plan to fight together, reported PTI.
Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said the 26 opposition parties are here to move forward unitedly and give a solution for people's problems and to address the concerns over this "dictatorial government's actions", reported PTI.
TMC leader Derek O'Brien said political parties at the Bengaluru meeting "were clearly setting the narrative" while the "BJP is reacting". He claimed that out of the NDA allies, eight do not have a single MP, nine have one MP each and three have two MPs each.
Kharge took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he had claimed that he alone is enough to take on the Opposition, then why was he feeling the need to get 30 parties together.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said attempts are being made to breathe new life into the NDA "which had become a ghost".
Venugopal said the opposition parties are all united by a common purpose to protect democracy, constitutional rights and the independence of institutions in this country.
The Parliament session is starting on July 20 and the opposition parties will chalk out the strategy for that also, he said.
"We are very sure that this (meeting) is going to be a game changer for the Indian political scenario," Venugopal said.
Asked who would be the leader of the alliance, Venugopal said, "We have enough leaders, who have proved their mettle in various capacities. You don't worry about the leader, worry about the situation in the country."
Referring to his party's differences with the TMC, CPI(M) leader Yechury said the situation is different in every state.
What's the proposed model to defeat the BJP?
Earlier, TMC supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee presented a formula to defeat the BJP in 2024 general elections.
Following Congress victory in Karnataka, Mamata said that the Opposition should support parties wherever they are strong. She said that every party has got a pocket of influence, such as SP and RLD in Uttar Pradesh, TMC in Bengal, Congress-JMM in Jharkhand, Congress-DMK in Tamil Nadu, and all parties should support their candidate in these pockets. This way, all non-BJP votes would converge on the common candidate, according to the formula.
“In this situation, Whoever is strong in some place, in their region, they should fight together. Let's take Bengal. In Bengal, we [Trinamool] should fight. In Delhi, AAP should fight. In Bihar, they are together. Nitishji [JD-U], Tejashwi [RJD], and Congress are together. They will decide. I cannot decide on their formula. In Chennai, they [DMK and Congress] have a friendship and they can fight together. In Jharkhand also, they [JMM-Congress] are together and in other states also. So it is their choice,” Mamata was quoted as saying.
Mamata also said that Congress is strong in around 200 seats and she would support the party in those seats.
Meanwhile, Yechury suggested that a model similar to 2004 when the Left-Congress coalition came to power can be replicated.
"The effort is to ensure that in these situations the division of votes which gives BJP the advantage should be minimal. This is not a new thing. Like in 2004, the Left had 61 seats, out of which we won 57 defeating the Congress candidates...then the Manmohan Singh government was formed and it ran for 10 years.
"Mamata and CPI(M) will not happen. There will be secular parties along with the Left and the Congress in West Bengal which will fight against the BJP and TMC," the CPI(M) general secretary said, adding that at the Centre what form this will take will be decided later
