Road to 2024: Meeting of India's top Opposition parties in Patna postponed

NEW DELHI: A meeting of opposition parties, which was scheduled to be held in Patna on June 12, has been postponed, sources said on Sunday.

With Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and some other key opposition figures unavailable for the meeting, there is a view to holding the deliberations at a later date so that they could also participate, giving the event due prominence. Gandhi is currently in the US.

Sources said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin were also finding it difficult to attend the meeting on June 12 due to prior commitments.

JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has taken the lead in speaking to several regional satraps besides the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, and the Left to forge unity among opposition ranks to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The JD(U) supremo has been pitching for "opposition unity" ever since he snapped ties with the BJP in August last year, following accusations that the ally was trying to create fissures in his party and diminish his standing.

He has held separate meetings with leaders of many parties, including Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and leaders from the Left parties.

As part of the "opposition unity" drive, Kumar has held parleys with not only Congress allies like Uddhav and Pawar but also its opponents like Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao.

In fact, the idea of hosting a meeting of opposition leaders in Patna was floated by Banerjee, who had invoked the memory of Jayaprakash Narayan upon meeting Kumar in Kolkata last month.