2nd joint meeting of Opposition parties in Bengaluru from today

Gearing up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections the Congress has rallied support from a total of 25 parties for the second Opposition Unity meeting in Karnatakas Bengaluru beginning on Monday Leaders of at least 26 Opposition parties will converge at a hotel in Bengaluru on July 1718 as part of their efforts to present a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP government in the CentreKarnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has been deputed as incharge to monitor all the preparations for the meeting Arrangements have been made for all the opposition leaders to stay at a fivestar hotel in the city party sources said As per a tentative schedule on Monday Congress General Secretary incharge Communications Jairam Ramesh and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal will hold a joint press conference at 11 amAnd all the opposition leaders will start arriving for the meeting in the afternoon An informal meeting is scheduled at 6 pm after which there will be dinner at 8 pm On July 18 the meeting will kick off at 11 am and will continue till 4 pm Following this there will be a press conference in which the campaign strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls may be announcedAccording to sources the name of the opposition alliance will be decided and the common minimum program will be discussed in the Bengaluru meeting Moreover several committees are expected to be formed which will hold meetings to deliberate on various problems that may arise in the alliance Various groups and subgroups may also be formed they saidSources said that a discussion may also be held on how to field a common opposition candidate on at least 80 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats against the BJP how to have alliances in the states and how to distribute tickets at key constituencies In the meeting deliberations will also be held on Uniform Civil Code UCC they addedAll bigwigs in the opposition including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi along with Rahul Gandhi are expected to attend the crucial opposition meeting in Bengaluru The Aam Aadmi Party AAP also confirmed its presence at the meeting on Sunday This came after the Congress made its stand clear and said that it will oppose the Centres ordinance on administrative services in Delhi if a bill is brought to replace the ordinance in the ParliamentEarlier during the Opposition meeting in Bihars Patna on June 23 a rift was seen between the AAP and the Congress after the latter delayed its stand on the Centres ordinance West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to come for the opposition meeting as well despite her leg injury following former Congress president Sonia Gandhis callEarlier in the Patna meeting 16 opposition parties were invited and 15 of them attended the meeting Apart from the Congress Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK All India Trinamool Congress TMC Janata Dal United JDU Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD Nationalist Congress Party NCP Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Communist Party of India Marxist Communist Party of India Samajwadi Party Acirc Jammu amp Kashmir National Conference NC Peoples Democratic Party PDP Communist Party of India MarxistacirciquestiquestLeninist Liberation CPIML Jharkhand Mukti Morcha JMM Aam Aadmi Party AAP and Rashtriya Lok Dal were among the list of invitees for the Patna meetingRashtriya Lok Dal Party chief Jayant Chowdhary who had earlier distanced himself from the Patna meeting is scheduled to attend the second meeting in Bengaluru on Monday In addition to these the Congress has invited 10 new parties to the second opposition meeting in Bengaluru to increase its tally over the NDA These include Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MDMK Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi VCK Revolutionary Socialist Party RSP Kongu Desa Makkal Katchi KDMK Forward Bloc Indian Union Muslim League IUML Kerala Congress Joseph Kerala Congress Mani Apna Dal Kamerawadi and Tamil Nadus Manithaneya Makkal Katchi MMK Congress the main host of this twoday meet is trying to make it look grander than that called by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 13 sources pointed outThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever