NEW DELHI: The meeting of the INDIA bloc scheduled on Wednesday will go ahead as planned, though many alliance partners won’t be attending. Another meeting has been scheduled in the third week of December, in which all the coalition partners are expected to take part.
Wednesday’s meet, reportedly scheduled by the Congress without consulting other parties, will take place at the residence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Top leaders of opposition parties, including Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and Janata Dal-United (JDU) will be conspicuous by their absence.
However, the alliance partners will meet later this month to discuss the formation of strategy and seat-sharing arrangements for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In a snub to the Congress for ignoring other INDIA partners during the recent state elections, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had on Monday ruled out attending Wednesday’s meet.
According to JD(U) leaders, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is unable to travel to Delhi on Wednesday as he is down with fever. His Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin will also skip it as he is busy with cyclone relief measures.
Leaders will meet on December 17: Lalu
RJD president Lalu Prasad said on Tuesday that the top leaders of the INDIA bloc will be meeting on December 17 to chalk out the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls