I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting: A meeting of the floor leaders of the I.N.D.I.A bloc culminated at Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in Delhi. According to the sources, the Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) skipped the meeting due to personal reasons.
The meeting began at around 7:00 pm in the national capital on Wednesday.
Around 17 parties were present in the meeting including INC (Congress), DMK, SP, RJD, CPIM, CPI, NCP, NC, IUML, RSP, JMM, VCK, JDU, Kerala Congress (M), AAP, RLD and MDMK.
Who all attended the meeting? Here's the list
Opposition Leaders of Rajya Sabha:
1. Mallikarjun Kharge — INC
2. Pramod Tiwari — INC
3. Tiruchi Siva — DMK
4. Elamaram Kareem — CPIM
5. Dr Faiyaz Ahmad — RJD
6. Dr Ramgopal Yadav — SP
7. Vandana Chavan — NCP
8. Raghav Chadha — AAP
9. Binoy Viswam — CPI
10. Abdul Wahab — IUML
11. Vaiko — MDMK
12. Jayant Chaudhary — RLD
13. Dr. Jose K Mani — Kerala Congress(M)
14. Mahua Maji — JMM
15. Jairam Ramesh — INC
16. KC Venugopal — INC
17. Dr. Syed Naseer Hussain — INC
18. Rajani Ashokrao Patil — INC
19. Javed Ali Khan — SP
Opposition Leaders of Lok Sabha:
1. Rahul Gandhi — INC
2. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary — INC
3. Gaurav Gogoi — INC
4. ST Hassan — SP
5. TR Baalu — DMK
6. Hasnain Masoodi — NC
7. E.T. Mohd Basheer — IUML
8. NK Premachandran — RSP
9. Dr Thirumaavalavan Thol — VCK
10. Lalan Singh — JD(U)
11. Suresh Kodukkunnil — INC
12. D Ravikumar — VCK
Earlier today, amid speculations that Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip the I.N.DI.A bloc meeting due to scheduling issues, the West Bengal Chief Minister clarified, saying that the opposition leaders will be meeting shortly whenever the Congress comes up with a favourable date.
"I was not informed earlier. Only a day before yesterday, Rahul called me up and told me about the meeting. We will be meeting shortly whenever they decide," Mamata said before leaving for her scheduled North Bengal tour on Wednesday.
Speaking about scheduling issues, the Chief Minister said that her counterparts need prior invitations at least seven or ten days in advance. "Other Chief Ministers also have meetings. They need to know about the program seven days ago or 10 days ago," she said.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that the next meeting of the INDIA bloc can take place between December 16 and 18 and many things including the face of the alliance will be decided at that time.
"The I.N.D.I.A alliance meeting was supposed to be held today but some prominent leaders were not available. There is a wedding in Mamata Banerjee's house, MK Stalin is busy with the relief operation in his flood-hit state, Nitish Kumar is not well, and Akhilesh Yadav is not available, therefore this meeting will be held on the 16th or 18th of December. The face etc. everything will be decided in the meeting. We are together and you will see its result in 2024," Sanjay Raut said.
Seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, which is just four months away, is likely to be at the top of the agenda. The next I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting would also be crucial for Congress, particularly as the party lost Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the Hindi heartland states that send a large number of members to the Parliament.
Previous meetings of Opposition parties:
The first meeting of the joint opposition convened in Patna on June 23 and the second meeting was held in Bengaluru on July 17-18. The third meeting happened in Mumbai during August 31-September 1.
The I.N.D.I.A alliance had appeared on shaky ground when the Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the Congress of betrayal after the Congress failed to reach a seat-sharing agreement for the Madhya Pradesh election. The Samajwadi Party has mellowed its stance now, party spokesperson Rajinder Chaudhary said that the results in the assembly polls would strengthen the I.N.D.I.A bloc.INDIA or 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance' is a group of 28 opposition parties, including the Congress.
The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by PM Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prevent it from winning a third straight term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the Mumbai meeting, the opposition parties adopted resolutions to collectively contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections while announcing that seat-sharing arrangements would be finalised as soon as possible through a spirit of give-and-take.The theme chosen by the I.N.D.I.A bloc for the elections is "Judega Bharat, Jeetega India" (India will unite, India will win) to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.
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