I-N-D-I-A bloc's first public rally in Oct; seat-sharing to be finalised soon

Opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday decided to hold their first joint public meeting in Bhopal in pollbound Madhya Pradesh in the first week of October and said the constituent parties will start seatsharing talks at the earliestThey said they will raise issues related to rising prices unemployment corruption and caste censusThis was decided at the first meeting of the coordination committee of the INDIA grouping which was held at the residence of NCP supremo Sharad PawarTwelve leaders of the 14member panel were present in the meeting that took place under the shadow of a row over DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalins remark on the Sanatan DharmaCongress General Secretary K C Venugopal who is a member of the panel said Abhishek Banerjee of the TMC could not attend the meeting due to the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate He alleged the ED summons was a result of the vendetta politics of the BJP and the prime ministerThe coordination committee decided to start the process of determining the seatsharing It was decided that the member parties will hold the talks and decide seatsharing at the earliest Venugopal said reading out from a joint statementHe said the committee also decided to hold joint public meetings in different parts of the countryThe first public meeting will be held at Bhopal in the first week of October on the issue of rising prices unemployment and corruption of the BJP government The parties present in the meeting agreed to take up the issue of the caste census the Congress leader saidHe also said the coordination committee authorised the subgroup of media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representativesThe leaders present at the meeting were NCP chief Sharad Pawar Congress K C Venugopal Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren CPIs D Raja SPs Jawed Ali Khan DMKs T R Baalu RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav AAP MP Raghav Chadha JDUs Sanjay Jha NC leader Omar Abdullah PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay RautHemant Soren arrived late for the meetingThe resolution issued on September 1 after the third meeting of the bloc in Mimbai said the parties would contest polls together as far as possible and that seat sharing in arrangements in different states would be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliestAccording to opposition leaders while states like Maharashtra Tamil Nadu and Bihar are sorted they face challenging negotiations for Delhi Punjab and West Bengal The meeting also focussed on finalising campaigns and rallies to be held in coming days but no decision in this regard was announcedOver two dozen opposition parties have formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance INDIA to take on the BJPled National Democratic Alliance unitedly in the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsAt the first meeting of the Opposition bloc in Patna in June it was decided that the strongest candidate from each seat would be picked up for the Lok Sabha pollsSources said that leaders of several opposition parties have sought an early seatsharing formula to be worked out to ensure that a joint opposition candidate is put up against BJP candidates in Lok Sabha seatsHowever several leaders said that the parties have to shed their egos and vested interests in arriving at such a formulaThis 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