Rishika Aradhya, Pune
At a two-day conclave that will begin today in Bengaluru, as many as 24 opposition parties are expected to attend. Topics like seat sharing and improved coordination and communication between the parties will be covered there. The parties will also discuss whether to give the grouping an official name and create a shared agenda, but they disagree.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), would instead preside over a meeting of his party’s MLAs in Mumbai on Monday, his daughter and NCP MP Supriya Sule confirmed to The Indian Express. This will prevent him from attending the Opposition dinner. He will attend the opposition party gathering scheduled for July 18 in attendance.
The meeting in Bengaluru comes after last month’s initial get-together in Patna to create a political front opposed to the BJP. Initially, this meeting was to be scheduled in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh but was relocated to Bengaluru on account of bad weather conditions in Himachal Pradesh.
More talks are likely to be conducted before a consensus on seat sharing, a likely common agenda and a plan to expose the shortcomings of the BJP administration at the center can be reached, according to party sources.
Several other opposition leaders, like Mamta Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav, will also be attending this meeting. In anticipation of this meeting, Bengaluru is all decked up with banners and billboards of the opposition party leaders.