Seventeen opposition parties that met in Patna on Friday, June 23, 2023, have decided to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together. In the press briefing held after the all-important meeting, the host Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that a decision has been taken by all parties to work together. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the next meeting will tentatively be held on July 12, 2023, in Shimla where more details will be worked out between the parties. A total of 17 parties were in attendance at the first meeting on June 23, 2023. Nitish Kumar, Rahul Gandhi, Kharge, MK Stalin, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren, Lalu Prasad, Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, Dipankar Bhattacharya, D Raja, Uddhav Thackeray, Mehbooba Mufti, and Omar Abdullah attended the meeting.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleague and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann skipped the press conference, raising doubts about their confirmation to be part of the alliance. Both, however, were present for the meeting. AAP has been vocal in demanding Congress’s support in their opposition to the Delhi ordinance brought in by the Modi-led Union government. The Congress is yet to decide on how they will vote on the issue in Parliament. Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin also skipped the press meet and the reason attributed to the leaders’ absence was the difficulty in scheduling flights.
“Everyone is worried. The party in power now is trying to change history. They will make us forget the freedom struggle too,” Nitish Kumar said at the press briefing. Kharge said they were preparing a common agenda and will meet in Shima tentatively on July 12. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said there was an attack on institutions and the foundations of the country by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). “This is a meeting of ideology. There will be minor differences, but we have decided to work together with flexibility and will protect our way of thinking,” he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister and All Indian Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee said that the parties were united and would work towards safeguarding the citizens of the country. “If they (BJP) come back to power (in 2024), there will be no elections again. We will fight the political vendetta of the BJP together. The history of this country will be saved from Bihar,” she said, referring to the choice of Patna as the place for the first meeting of the parties.
Two former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti and Nationalist Congress’s (NC) Omar Abdullah, spoke about the president’s rule in their state since 2019 and said that the BJP has been attacking democracy and secularism. “Jammu and Kashmir was the lab for BJP. The idea of India propagated by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru is what Jammu and Kashmir joined hands with. We will not allow Gandhi’s country to become Godse’s country,” Mehbooba Mufti said. Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah said the focus should not be on who was missing from the podium but who was present. “This is a fight of values, ideologies, and thinking. Our democracy is in danger. Our final goal is not for power but for principles, intentions and ideologies,” Abdullah said.
Former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said that their ideologies may be different and they may have their differences but they have come together to save the country. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav quipped that Hanuman had abandoned the BJP and that is why Congress won in Karnataka.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the BJP was assaulting the pillars of the Constitution. “Our history, which is that of a secular democratic republic, has to be protected. In the coming days, we will have political programmes and people outreach programmes. We will discuss how to ensure BJP will not get a majority share of votes in states,” Yechury said.