New Delhi: A meeting of INDIA bloc leaders was held at the office of the Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday to chalk out the strategy for the winter session of Parliament.
In the meeting, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, TMC leader Derek O’Brien, Farooq Abdullah, JDU leader Harivansh Narayan Singh, AAP leader Raghav Chadha and other leaders were present.
Meanwhile, Members of the INDIA block have decided to highlight issues of the people in the remaining part of the winter session of Parliament to make the government accountable. The next meeting of the leaders of the INDIA bloc will be held on December 19 in the national capital.
Taking to ‘X’, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “The 4th meeting of the leaders of INDIA parties will be held on Tuesday, December 19th, 2023, in New Delhi at 3 p.m.” Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders for December 6.
However, the meeting was cancelled as key opposition leaders, including Janata Dal-United (JDU) Supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin and Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav did not gave their confirmation of attending the meeting. The first meeting of the joint opposition convened in Patna on June 23 and the second meeting was held in Bengaluru on July 17-18.
The third meeting happened in Mumbai on August 31-September 1. INDIA or ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ is a group of opposition parties, including the Congress. The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prevent it from winning a third straight term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the Mumbai meeting, the opposition parties adopted resolutions to collectively contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections while announcing that seat-sharing arrangements would be finalized as soon as possible through a spirit of give-and-take.
The theme chosen by the INDIA bloc for the elections is “Judega Bharat, Jeetega India” (India will unite, India will win) to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.