26 opposition groups gathered in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, for a two-day brainstorming session to develop a united platform and agitational agenda to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with posters of “United We Stand” all around them.
Leading members of the Opposition parties gathered for a dinner meeting on Monday to kick off the two-day brainstorming session.
The summit in Bengaluru is the second of its kind intended to bring the Opposition together. In Patna, the first meeting took place last month.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand and Bihar Chief Ministers Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal, and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav were among those seated among banners reading “United We Stand.”
The two-day brainstorming session that was designed to finalize the agenda for the official negotiations that will take place on Tuesday morning began with the dinner gathering, according to PTI.
Mamata said, “The meeting went well.
The two-day conference is being hosted by Karnataka’s chief minister, Siddaramaiah, who earlier Monday 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.”
In a noteworthy show of power, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also hosting a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Tuesday.
Congress is a game-changer.
According to the Congress party, the opposition coming together will “change the political landscape” in India.
The Congress party attacked the BJP, claiming that people who formerly advocated defeating the Opposition parties on their own are now attempting to revive the NDA, which they claim has become a “ghost.”
Kharge said that the BJP was shaken and declared that all members of the opposition coalition will battle together to defeat the BJP and reject any efforts to split them.
Jairam Ramesh and Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal warned earlier on Monday during a news conference that people will send a lesson to those who had completely failed at governance and had deceived them with empty promises.
“That’s the reason we came here… We are confident that this will fundamentally alter the political landscape in India, and we are pleased to note that following the Patna meeting, those who previously stated that “we are very confident in defeating the entire Opposition alone” have now begun holding talks. This is the true success of opposition unity, Venugopal said.
The dinner meeting’s agenda
The dinner meeting would be used as a venue to formally set the agenda for the Tuesday main meeting.
According to sources who spoke to PTI, there is a suggestion to form a subcommittee to prepare a single minimum platform and communication points for the Opposition coalition for the general elections of 2024.
Additionally, there will be discussions on forming a subcommittee to plan the parties’ united schedule of events, which will include rallies, conventions, and agitations. Also on the table is a proposal to talk about how seat sharing will be decided amongst states. The leaders of the opposition could also talk about the problem of EVMs and make suggestions for changes to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The leaders of the opposition want to provide a moniker for the coalition as well.
Who all will be there for the event?
The Bengaluru mega-event would have a total of 26 parties in attendance.
According to sources who spoke to PTI, Sharad Pawar, the head of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was the only invited leader who was absent from the meeting at the Taj West End Hotel. He and his daughter Supriya Sule are expected to arrive on Tuesday.
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) were among the parties represented at the conference.
Along with the aforementioned politicians, Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Farooq Abdullah (NC), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), and Jayant Chaudhary (RLD) were also there, according to PTI.
The summit that Nitish convened in Bihar last month was attended by around 15 parties. There are 26 parties this time.
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) headed by M H Jawahirullah are among the parties that would have been joined this time, according to PTI.
According to PTI, there are over 150 opposition parties in Lok Sabha that would be represented at this conference.
variations between the opposition parties
Despite claims of Opposition unity and lofty goals, the coalition nevertheless has internal tensions.
In West Bengal, the TMC and the Left parties are fierce adversaries and have a bad relationship. In Punjab and Delhi, respectively, the state branches of the AAP and the Congress are bitter enemies. At both locations, the AAP overthrew the Congress regimes. Although the PDP and NC have historically been adversaries in Jammu and Kashmir, they currently share the same stance against the repeal of Article 370 and the downgrading of J&K to a Union Territory (UT).
Sitaram Yechury, the leader of the CPI(M), who arrived for the opposition gathering, ruled out any coalition with the TMC in West Bengal and said that the Left, the Congress, and secular parties would fight both the BJP and the TMC in the state, according to PTI.
Yechury did, however, add that they would work to develop a strategy to fight together in order to lessen the gap in opposition votes.
According to PTI, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said that the 26 opposition parties are here to work together to address the concerns of the public over this “dictatorial government’s actions” and to provide a solution to their issues.
Political parties “were clearly setting the narrative” during the Bengaluru summit, according to TMC leader Derek O’Brien, while the “BJP is reacting.” He said that of the NDA allies, nine have one MP each, three have two MPs apiece, and eight have no MPs at all.
Kharge poked fun at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, questioning why he felt the need to get 30 parties together if he had asserted that he was capable of defeating the Opposition on his own.
The NDA “had become a ghost,” according to Congress national secretary Jairam Ramesh, and efforts are being undertaken to give it fresh life.
According to Venugopal, the opposition parties share the same goal of safeguarding our nation’s democracy, constitutional rights, and institutional independence.
On July 20, the next session of Parliament will begin, and the opposition parties will also lay out their plans, he added.
The conference, according to Venugopal, “will fundamentally alter the political landscape in India.”
When questioned about the alliance’s leader, Venugopal said, “We have enough leaders who have shown their mettle in different positions. You should be more concerned with the state of the nation than the leader.
Yechury, the head of the CPI(M), noted that each state has its own circumstances when referring to disagreements between his party and the TMC.
What strategy is being put out to combat the BJP?
Mamata Banerjee, leader of the TMC and chief minister of West Bengal, had laid forth a plan to defeat the BJP in the general elections of 2024.
Mamata said that the opposition should help parties wherever they are strong after the triumph of the Congress in Karnataka. Every party, according to her, has a stronghold, such as the SP and RLD in Uttar Pradesh, the TMC in Bengal, the Congress-JMM in Jharkhand, and the Congress-DMK in Tamil Nadu. She advised all parties to support their candidates in these strongholds. According to the formula, all non-BJP votes would then align behind the same candidate.
“Whoever is powerful in some location, in their territory, they should fight together in this scenario. Bengal shall we take. We [Trinamool] should fight in Bengal. AAP should fight in Delhi. They are all present in Bihar. Together, Tejashwi (RJD), Nitishji (JD-U), and Congress. The choice is theirs. I’m uncertain about their formula. They [the DMK and Congress] are friendly and may fight together in Chennai. They [JMM-Congress] are present in other states as well as Jharkhand. Thus, it is their decision, according to a comment from Mamata.
Additionally, Mamata said that she will back the party in the 200 seats in Congress where the party is dominant.
Yechury in the meanwhile said that a paradigm similar to 2004 may be recreated to bring about the Left-Congress coalition’s victory.
The goal is to make sure that any vote splitting that favors the BJP in these circumstances is as little as possible. This is nothing new. Like in 2004, when we defeated the Congress candidates in 57 of the 61 seats the Left held. As a result, the Manmohan Singh administration was established and lasted for ten years.
“Mamata and CPI(M) won’t take place. In West Bengal, there will be secular parties that will fight against the BJP and TMC alongside the Left and the Congress, the CPI(M) general secretary stated, adding that the Centre would decide later on what shape this will take.
