Opposition Unity: Leaders of 24 Parties Invited, Sonia Gandhi to Attend Bengaluru Meet

New Delhi: The opposition grouping to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next Lok Sabha polls is set to expand with more parties joining in at the second unity meeting being convened by the Congress next week in Bengaluru.

Leaders of 24 non-BJP parties have been invited for the meet on July 17 and 18, the first edition of which saw the participation of 15 parties.

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi is also expected to attend a dinner meeting on July 17 where leaders of these parties will be present.

There will be a more structured formal meeting the next day, where the Opposition front would further strategise its plans to take on BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said the MDMK, KDMK, VCK, RSP, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph) and Kerala Congress (Mani) are among the political parties that will join the second opposition meeting.

A senior Opposition leader said he has received the invite from the Congress president to attend the dinner meeting followed by a formal meeting the next day.

The 24 opposition parties have together around 150 Lok Sabha members currently and are seeking to expand their base.

Opposition parties are likely to deliberate on a broad plan for their unity efforts, where they intend to put up one common candidate against the BJP across the country, sources said.

The first such meeting of opposition parties was held in Bihar’s Patna on June 23.

Sixteen parties were invited for the meeting of which 15 had attended. Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary could not attend due to a family function.

The Aam Aadmi Party has also been invited for the Bengaluru meeting. The Kejriwal-led outfit had asked the Congress to make its stand clear on the Delhi ordinance before the next meeting.

The AAP had said that if the Congress did not publicly support it on the Ordinance issue, it would not attend the next meeting.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had said on Monday, "A meeting of leaders of all opposition parties (in the country) will be held on July 17 and 18, as already announced. All the leaders are going to come. (M) Mallikarjun Kharge (AICC President) has requested Sonia Gandhi to participate in this meeting. We have got a message that she will be participating in this meeting.

While announcing the dates of the Opposition meeting, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal had said, "We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces".

"After a hugely successful all-opposition meeting in Patna, we will be holding the next meeting in Bengaluru on 17 and 18 July, 2023. We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces and present a bold vision to take the country forward," Venugopal had said.