14 Oppn Parties Met In Patna Today Ahead of LS Polls

Patna, June 23: In a show of opposition unity, fourteen opposition parties met in Patna on Friday and decided to fight the next Lok Sabha elections together to dethrone the ruling BJP-led government from power.

The meeting was convened by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who had travelled to various states including Odisha to forge the opposition unity and take on the Narendra Modi-led dispensation.

According to media reports, the meeting was attended by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, party Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, MP Sanjay Raut, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah attended the meeting.

The parties together hold less than 200 of the 543 seats in the current Lok Sabha but remain upbeat about giving the ruling party a tough fight in the polls, scheduled in 2024 by joining hands together.

The BJP has dismissed the opposition meeting as a ‘photo session”, saying the Congress was reaching out to the opposition parties as it was unable to defeat Narendra Modi alone.

The West Bengal Chief Minister, who lashed out at the Modi government for its policies, described the meeting on Friday as ‘fruitful” and said that they will once again meet at Shimla in July to draw a common agenda to fight the elections.

"It was a good meeting where it has been decided that we would fight the elections together. Another meeting will be held soon (in July),” the Bihar CM said addressing a post-meeting press conference. The Delhi CM, however, skipped the press conference, supposedly upset over Congress failing to divulge its stand supporting AAP on the Centre’s Delhi ordinance.