Team News Riveting
Mumbai, September 1
The INDIA bloc on Friday passed a resolution after marathon meeting to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together “as far as possible”, asserting that seat-sharing arrangements in states will be concluded at the earliest in a spirit of “give and take”.
Opposition bloc leaders took crucial decisions including setting up of a 14-member coordination committee that will act as the top decision-making body of the alliance and start work on seat-sharing. It also explored the speculation of early polls and the formation of a panel to explore the possibility of ‘one nation, one election’. The third meeting of the INDIA Block concluded in Mumbai today.
The 14- member Coordination Committee and Election Strategy Committee includes KC Venugopal (INC), Sharad Pawar (NCP), TR Baalu (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), Sanjay Raut (SS-UBT), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Raghav Chadha (AAP), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Lalan Singh (JDU), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (NC), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), one more member from CPI(M) to also be announced.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin were prominently present in the meeting. Besides, senior leaders including Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, CPI (ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Independent Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal and RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary also attended the meeting.
Addressing a joint press conference after the two-day brainstorming here on crystallising the alliance’s structure, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge alleged the BJP-led government was stealing from the poor to help big industrialists. “INDIA grouping must win to stop this loot.” “We all have a common goal to fight inflation and unemployment,” Kharge said at the presser. In his remarks, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi slammed the government over fresh allegations against the Adani Group. He also claimed China has “taken India’s land in Ladakh” and everyone there knows about it.
The resolution after INDIA’s third meeting (the first two were in Patna and Bengaluru) also refers to seat-sharing arrangements, noting these will be “initiated immediately and concluded… in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take”.
Opposition alliance leaders also passed a resolution hailing ISRO’s successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 mission, and asserted that it took six decades to build, expand and deepen the space agency’s capacities and capabilities.
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 fourth meeting is likely to take place in New Delhi.
