The Opposition INDIA bloc gears up for their third strategic meeting scheduled to be held in Maharashtra’s capital city Mumbai on 31 August and 1 September. As members of twenty eight parties gather in Mumbai for the Opposition INDIA bloc meet, six chief ministers are also expected to attend the meet.
The two-day meeting of the INDIA bloc will be held at Hotel Grand Hyatt, in Mumbai.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at Mumbai on Wednesday and met veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan at his residence to celebrate Raksha Bandhan. At the event, CM Mamata Banerjee also met Samajwadi Party (SP) Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan.
Later CM Banerjee visited Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray at his residence here and tied a Rakhi on him.
Banerjee went to Thackeray’s residence ‘Matoshree’ in suburban Bandra after visiting Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan at his residence in Juhu, sources said.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Opposition leaders Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray addressed reporters in Mumbai.
At the meet, Sharad Pawar said, “We will be sitting and discussing a Common Minimum Programme. We have yet to start the dialogue for seat sharing. There is a chance that we might discuss this issue in this meeting and then give responsibility to leaders speak with state leaders about seat sharing”.
The INDIA bloc is expected to unveil their logo during the third strategic opposition meet.
Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena is hosting the INDIA bloc meet at Mumbai. Thackeray also addressed reporters in Mumbai on the eve of the meet.
“Today is Raksha Bandhan… The BJP should tie Rakhi to Bilkis Bano, women of Manipur, women wrestlers… They should feel safe in the country and that’s why we have come together,” he said.
There is expectation that an 11-member coordination committee will also be named, ” At that meeting in Mumbai, we will decide on who the 11 will be, who the Convenor will be, etc. These are small things,” Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge had said after the meet in Bengaluru, where leaders had come up with the name of the Front – Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance – with the acronym INDIA.
Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc are set to hold hectic parleys during the two-day conclave here starting Thursday, during which they will announce a coordination committee and unveil a logo for the alliance.
They would chalk out a joint campaign strategy to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and iron out the differences among themselves. The leaders are also likely to announce a few panels to draft a common minimum programme of the alliance, to frame joint plans for holding agitations across the country and for seat sharing.
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Updated: 30 Aug 2023, 10:52 PM IST