Bengaluru opposition meet to take major decisions to fight Modi, BJP
BENGALURU: The stage is set for a two-day opposition conclave in Bengaluru that will start on Monday, with the common agenda of defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The conclave is set to witness a jump in the number of parties taking part to 24 from 16 in the previous Patna meeting on June 23, 2023. The meet has gained political importance as former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will participate along with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, chief ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) and other national leaders.
The presence of these leaders is expected to give greater momentum to opposition unity to take on the BJP juggernaut, decide on the leader to head the opposition group, hold one-on-one seat-sharing talks and strategies to avoid a division of anti-BJP votes.
With the elections less than a year away and apprehensions of Modi advancing the polls giving no time for the opposition grouping to plan a cohesive strategy, the leaders at the conclave could set a national narrative against Modi, list out failures of his 10-year rule and talk about confrontations with governors in non-BJP-ruled states.
This is not the first time that Bengaluru has facilitated opposition parties to come together on a common platform. In the past, conclaves were held to drum up support to form national united fronts, bringing leaders like NT Rama Rao,
MG Ramachandran, Ramakrishna Hegde, Lalu Prasad Yadav and other prominent leaders defeated the then-powerful Congress. The conclave is likely to discuss the recent setback to the Nationalist Congress Party, which has been split by Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar, who has joined the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government in Maharashtra.
The deliberations at the meeting could centre around avoiding such disasters as BJP has already orchestrated a division in Shiv Sena earlier. In Bihar too, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who heads a JDU-RJD coalition government faces a similar threat as Jitan Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha has already joined the NDA camp. Lok Janshakti leader and Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan too is set
to join NDA.
While BJP is working hard to come back to power for the third consecutive time, the opposition is planning to scuttle a hat-trick and the path towards that end will be laid in Bengaluru.