Opposition's meet in Bengaluru: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday attended the Opposition's key meeting in Karnataka's Bengaluru after skipping the first day of deliberations on Monday, July 17. The senior opposition leader had skipped the first day of the mega joint meeting, where 26 like-minded parties closed ranks with a common aim of taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
As the meeting was underway on Tuesday, Pawar took to Twitter to state that the Opposition has decided to fight and win. "We will fight and we will win," he said. "Attending the joint meeting of opposition parties in Bangalore, along with Indian national congress president MP Mallikarjun Kharge, Indian National Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, CPI (M) Leader Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party National President Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, All India Trinamool Congress Leader Mr Derek O'Brien and various opposition dignitaries. On this occasion, all the present have decided that ‘We Will Fight and We Will Win’ (sic)," Pawar's tweet read.
Pawar's participation in the meeting also holds significance as NCP had seen a split earlier this month with his nephew Ajit Pawar joining the NDA government in Maharashtra with eight other MLAs. Notably, 82-year-old Pawar is seen as one of the key leaders of the Opposition's camp ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Opposition likely to announce two sub-committees
During the meeting, the Opposition parties are also likely to announce two sub-committees – one for finalising the common minimum programme along with communication points and the other for chalking out a joint opposition programme of events, rallies and conventions.
On the first day of meeting on July 17, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers M K Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren and RJD chief Lalu Prasad were among those who attended the dinner meeting where the agenda for the formal talks starting Tuesday morning was finalised.
