Opposition leaders meet in Bengaluru under 'United We Stand' slogan

Bengaluru: Top leaders of 26 opposition parties were arriving here for a two-day brainstorming session with a call for unity and are expected to chalk out their joint programme aimed at defeating the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"United We Stand" is the slogan on posters that dotted the streets of Bengaluru with pictures of opposition leaders, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, NCP's Sharad Pawar, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, DMK chief M K Stalin and leaders of Left and some regional outfits.

Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge arrived in the Karnataka capital on a special plane and were received at the airport by state chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, along with RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav also arrived later in the afternoon.

A warm welcome was also accorded to other leaders like former chief ministers Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Farooq Abdullah (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), besides Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI) and Jayant Chaudhary (RLD) as they reached here for the Opposition meeting.

The Congress asserted that Opposition unity would be "a game changer" for the Indian political scenario and 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".

The Opposition meeting coincides with the NDA meeting convened on July 18 in Delhi, where some new allies are likely to join the ruling BJP-led coalition.

Talks of unity notwithstanding, differences among opposition parties, especially those who have been traditional rivals remain, and reconciling political interests will be a challenging task.

Arriving for the Opposition meet, 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.

Yechury, however, added that the endeavour is to reduce the split in opposition votes and they will chalk out a plan to fight together.

The BJP, which has been targeting these parties over their differences, on Monday called it a "meeting of opportunists and power-hungry" leaders and said such an alliance will not do any good for the country at present or in the future.

But 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".

Sources said the opposition leaders will firm up a strategy to defeat the BJP in the next general elections during the two-day session, which will start with a dinner meeting that will be attended by Sonia Gandhi and other top leaders.

Mamata Banerjee is not likely to attend the dinner due to an injury.

The opposition leaders will begin work on a common minimum programme and announce a joint agitational plan, besides holding discussions on issuing a joint declaration and moving forward on their proposal of putting up common opposition candidates in a majority of the Lok Sabha seats.

The agenda for the talks would be finalised during discussions before a dinner meeting on Monday evening. Ahead of the meeting, Congress president Kharge said all opposition alliance partners will unitedly fight against the BJP and thwart attempts to divide them.

He also took a swipe 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.

Referring to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting on Tuesday, Kharge claimed that seeing the Opposition getting together, the BJP was "rattled" and was now bringing together parties that have already splintered, in order to show numbers.

"The PM had said 'Main akela kaafi hoon saare Opposition ke liye' while speaking in Rajya Sabha, then why is he bringing together 30 parties. Who are these 30 parties, what are their names, are they all registered with the Election Commission." He accused the BJP of trying to destabilise democratically-elected governments.

Addressing a press conference ahead of the meeting, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said attempts are being made to breathe new life into the NDA.

"There used to be no talk about NDA and suddenly since the past few days we are hearing and reading about it. Suddenly, it was reported that an NDA meeting has been called for tomorrow.

"So NDA, which had become a ghost, attempts are now being made to breathe a new life into it," Ramesh said.

This is a result of the meeting in Patna, he added.

Venugopal said people will teach a lesson when the time comes to those who have totally failed in governance and cheated them with false promises.

"That is why we have come here. This is the second meeting. We will decide in this meeting what the course of action would be in future," Venugopal said.

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 is going to be a game changer for the 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.

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." He said the Opposition parties are all united by a common purpose to protect democracy, constitutional rights and the independence of institutions in this country.

"These are all under attack from the BJP government. They want to silence the Opposition's voice. They are using their agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, CBI to suppress the voice of Opposition. The disqualification of Rahul Gandhi was the biggest example of that," Venugopal alleged.

"The incident happening in Maharashtra also shows that. They want to destabilise elected governments by misusing these agencies," he alleged referring to the Ajit Pawar-led revolt in the NCP.

Venugopal also said that Manipur has been "burning" since the last 75 days and the "silence of the PM is shocking".

Referring to his party's differences with the TMC, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the situation is different in every state.

"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.

Yechury referred to the 2004 model which brought the Left-Congress coalition to power at the Centre.

Meanwhile, sources said 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.

Besides, the sources said, the plan is also to set 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 EVM and suggest reforms to the Election Commission, the sources said. The opposition leaders also plan to suggest a name for the alliance.

Fifteen parties including the Congress, TMC, AAP, CPI, CPI-M, RJD, JMM, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), SP and JDU, attended the last meeting for opposition unity hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23.

"This time we are expecting leaders of 26 parties," Venugopal said.

The total strength of the opposition parties attending this meet is around 150 in the Lok Sabha.

Among the parties which will be added this time are MDMK, KDMK, VCK, RSP, CPI-ML, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph) and Kerala Congress (Mani), besides the Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) of Krishna Patel and Tamil Nadu's Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) led by M H Jawahirullah.

The Opposition meeting also comes in the backdrop of the split in the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the West Bengal panchayat polls which saw widespread violence that claimed many lives with state units of the Congress and Left parties accusing the TMC government of oppression.