Opposition boards Patna-Shimla Express

Spread the love

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, June 23: Seventeen Opposition parties have principally agreed to join hands to work out strategy to force one-on-one contest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Except for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), constituents of the Opposition camp have spoken in unanimity of the common agenda to defeat the BJP in the poll next year.

The AAP wants the Congress to come clear on the issue of the Delhi Ordinance, which takes away the administrative control of the officials from the city government. Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge said in Patna that his party will take a decision on the issue of opposing the Delhi Ordinance in the Rajya Sabha before the Monsoon session of Parliament. Delhi unit Congress leaders are opposed to their party taking stand with the AAP.

“We will meet again in Shimla on July 10 or 12,” said Kharge in Patna after the Opposition meeting. Kharge along with former president of Congress Rahul Gandhi attended the meeting. Both Kharge and Gandhi were accorded positions of esteem in the sitting order at the meeting, which was attended by chief ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, MK Stalin, and Mamata Banerjee respectively.

Fresh from the renal transplant, the patriarch of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Lalu Prasad Yadav was the star attraction. He also sought to refresh his old touch, saying “I am fit now, and I will make the BJP fit”. “Hanuman ji is now with us, as he helped Rahul Gandhi party win the Karnataka election. Now, the BJP will get the beatings at the hands of Hanuman ji,” Yadav also remarked.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) strongman Sharad Pawar also attended the meeting, and he lent his voice for common agenda for all the parties in the 2024 polls. The Shiv Sena also took part in the deliberations.

“We will fight together against the political vendetta of the BJP. Nwxt meeting will take place in Shimla,” said Banerjee. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hosted the Opposition meeting. The Congress will host the next meeting, and it appears that other constituents will also get involved in taking the deliberations forward.

Notable Opposition absentees included the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Both were not invited, as they are against joining hands with the Congress.