Lalu Prasad & Nitish Kumar among top leaders of 24 parties to attend 2nd opposition meeting in Bengaluru | India News

PATNA: Top leaders of altogether 24 political parties would be attending the second opposition unity meeting in Bengaluru on July 17-18, as Congress has now agreed to take along a maximum number of smaller regional parties at the advice of Bihar CM and JD(U) de facto leader Nitish Kumar.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi is also expected to attend a dinner hosted by her party at Bengaluru on July 17 where the leaders of 24 opposition parties will be present.
From Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar, RJD president Lalu Prasad, deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh would be attending the meeting. Lalu Prasad has already announced that he would participate in the Bengaluru meeting.
A week ago, Nitish advised the Congress leaders to take along a maximum number of regional parties to strengthen the alliance of opposition parties to give a formidable challenge to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking at the combined meeting of the Grand Alliance’s legislators at the assembly premises here on Monday, Nitish himself revealed that he had advised the Congress top leadership to take along a maximum number of smaller regional parties to make the opposition parties’ unity a grand success.
Altogether 15 major opposition parties had attended the first opposition unity meeting, convened by Nitish in Patna on June 23. Altogether 16 parties were invited for the Patna meeting of which 15 had attended. The Rashtriya Lok Dal’s (RLD) Choudhary Jayant Singh could not attend the first meeting due to a family function. Now, Jayant has declared that he would be attending the Bengaluru meeting.
Sources in Bihar’s ruling JD(U) said, besides participation of Jayant, eight new regional parties, most of them from southern states, have not only extended their support to the opposition parties’ efforts to present a united front against BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but also confirmed that their top leaders would be attending the meeting at Bengaluru.
The eight regional parties are Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Kongu Desa Makkal Katchi (KDMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), All India Forward Bloc, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Kerala Congress (Joseph), and Kerala Congress (Mani), sources in JD(U) said.
“Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, a Lok Sabha member from Assam and the founder president of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has also made a request to join the opposition unity move, but the Congress is yet to make its stand clear on taking along him,” a senior JD(U) leader, who did not want to be identified, told TOI on Wednesday.
Ajmal had met the RJD president Lalu Prasad in Patna last month and made a formal request to join the opposition unity move, the JD(U) leader said.
Sources said, Congress president and Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has sent a formal invitation letter to top leaders of all 24 opposition parties for participation in the two-day Bengaluru meeting.
“I request you to kindly make it convenient to attend the meeting followed by dinner on July 17 at 6.00 pm at Bengaluru. The meeting will continue on July 18, 2023 from 11.00 am onwards. Looking forward to meeting you in Bengaluru,” Kharge has said in his letter. Top leaders of JD(U) and RJD have already received Kharge’s letter.