Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and party’s face Rahul Gandhi will be in attendance at the opposition meeting to be held in Patna on June 23. The grand meet of leading opposition parties has been organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal confirmed the attendance of Gandhi and Kharge at the meeting on Thursday.
“Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge will attend the opposition meeting in Patna... It is high time to have a unity between opposition to fight against these forces (BJP) who are ruining the country,” KC Venugopal was quoted as saying.
The meeting of the Opposition parties was called by Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar to discuss unity against the BJP-led NDA ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The meeting was earlier scheduled for June 12 but is now likely to be held on June 23.
Kumar has been spearheading the campaign to unite all like-minded parties to forge an alliance for the 2024 elections. The meeting was reportedly postponed on the request of the Congress, DMK, CPI-M. Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin had also requested that Kumar postpone the meeting.
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As part of his unity campaign, Kumar had met Kharge and Rahul in April and May along with Bihar Dy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. The Bihar CM had also met NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM and JMM chief Hemant Soren, Delhi CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, former Uttar Pradesh CM and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and former Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray among others.
At least 16 opposition parties including DMK, AAP, JMM, Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI-M, CPI, Congress, TMC, SP, BRS will attend the meeting to be held on June 23 in Patna, according to sources.
(Inputs from ANI)
