NEW DELHI – With the third meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) all set to take place in Maharashtra’s Mumbai, all eyes are set on the discussions in the meeting as all the parties managed to work unitedly in the just concluded parliament monsoon session.
The third meeting of the 26 INDIA parties will be held in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1.
To chalk out the strategy, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi had also met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar recently, a senior party leader said.
Senior Congress leaders believe that during the third meeting the discussions will begin among INDIA constituents on the formation of committees, including an all-important coordination committee.
Sources said that decision on the national convenor, coordination committee and other political committees for the INDIA parties will be announced.
They said that in the Bengaluru meeting it was decided to have a 11 member coordination committee so there will be a detailed discussion about it besides discussion over the name for the post of the convenor will also take place.
The source said that even the stay on the conviction of Rahul Gandhi will also be discussed during the meeting and how to tackle such a situation in the future against any of the political opponent leaders by the BJP.
The INDIA alliance had already held two meetings in a gap of one month in Bihar Patna on June 23 and in Karnataka’s Bengaluru on July 18 and 19.
A party source, however, said that during the third meeting, even the strategy to corner the BJP-led NDA in the upcoming parliament winter session will also be decided keeping in the mind the suspension of the Leader of Congress Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, AAP Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha and AAP’s Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku.
The source said that we showed our unity and strength in the Parliament in this session and definitely we will make more aggressive stand for the next session of Parliament.
The source said that the suspension of the MPs and the bulldozing of the Parliamentary process to pass the Bills in the Parliament has given the opposition a fresh ammo in their hand.
The source said that thus the INDIA alliance members will utilise the momentum against the government besides the charges of the misuse of the central agencies against the political opponents.
He said that a detailed discussion will also take place on the same and a discussion will be held how to corner the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) across the country.
Another party leader, who was part of the first and second opposition meet in Bihar’s Patna on June 23 and second meeting in Karnataka’s Bengaluru on July 17 and 18, said that bringing the 26 opposition parties together is to save democracy and the Constitution which is under attack and the idea is to stop the split in the vote of the opposition parties against the BJP.
He said that all these parties have come together to stop the juggernaut of the BJP-led NDA which managed to win 353 seats out of the 542 seats. The BJP had won 303 seats in 2019 polls.
The Congress had contested on 421 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was in a direct fight with the BJP at 373 seats. BJP had contested the 2019 polls on 435 seats while rest of the seats were contested by its alliance partners.
However, the grand old party could manage to win only 52 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite former party chief Rahul Gandhi running an aggressive campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The party leader said that a detailed discussion is going on in the party looking at the seats it contested directly against the BJP in 2019 and it will still try to fight on at least on 400 seats across the country.
The source said that despite posing for a happy picture after the meeting, the road ahead is not much smooth as it requires a lot of serious talks which involves sacrifice in the states where the regional parties are its main rivals. -IANS