Opposition gets together to fight Lok Sabha polls

Opposition leaders at the meeting, in Patna on Friday. Pic/PTI

As many as 17 opposition parties on Friday resolved to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the BJP and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences. Addressing a joint press conference after an almost four-hour-long meeting, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said the leaders will meet in the next few days to give final shape to their plan of fighting together.

"We had a good meeting and several leaders expressed their views during the meeting. 17 parties have decided to work together and contest the Lok Sabha elections unitedly," he told reporters. Kumar, who hosted the first such meeting, said they were working in the national interest and accused the BJP of acting against the national interest as it was trying to change the country's history.

Sources said differences emerged between AAP and the Congress after Arvind Kejriwal insisted that the grand old party should make its stand public on the Delhi ordinance, failing which it would not be possible for his party to attend future meetings of the Opposition.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the next meeting of opposition leaders would be held in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh next month. "We have decided to prepare a common agenda and will take decisions in the next meeting on how to move forward," he said. "We will have to evolve separate plans for every state and we will work together to dethrone the BJP at the Centre," he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "We may have some differences but have decided to work together with flexibility and will work to protect our ideology". West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said the first meet was organised in Patna as "Whatever starts from Patna, takes the shape of the public movement".

"We all are united and will fight unitedly against BJP," she said and added that "the BJP wants to change history but we'll ensure that history is saved". She also asserted that they were not opposition parties but were also citizens of the country who had patriotism and loved ‘Bharat Mata'. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said just like the JP movement, "our united front will get the blessings of the public".

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