Posters of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and others are put up on the eve of the opposition meeting, in Bengaluru on July 16, 2023. , Photo Credit: ANI
Bengaluru is set to make political headlines once again meeting of opposition parties It is considering preparing a plan for a joint fight against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. This is the second time in the last two months that Bengaluru will play host to political leaders as many of them gathered for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s swearing-in ceremony.
The meeting in Bengaluru follows the first such meeting in Patna last month to form an anti-BJP political front. Though the meeting was scheduled to be held in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla, it was shifted to Bengaluru due to weather conditions in the hill state.
This time Congress leader Sonia Gandhi will also participate. Afterwards Congress announced support For the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the issue of the central ordinance Aam Aadmi Party will also participate in the meeting, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chowdhary, who did not attend the Patna meeting due to personal reasons, will also be present there.
In 2018, when the short-lived (14 months) Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress alliance led by former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy was sworn in, several regional parties displayed a similar show of strength. before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, the JD(S) – which suffered defeat at the hands of the Congress in the recent assembly polls – has not been invited to the meeting, party sources said.
While leaders representing 23 parties are expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting, Ms Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are due on Monday. Party sources said Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala and media chief Jairam Ramesh are already here for preparatory meetings. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is hosting a dinner for the visiting leaders on Monday night.
political center
Party sources said more meetings are likely to be held before agreeing on seat-sharing, a possible common program and strategy to highlight the failure of the BJP government at the Centre.
Hosting nationally relevant political forums is not new to Bengaluru as the city has been a center of political activity in the past as well.
Prior to the 1989 general elections, various factions of the Janata Parivar came together to form the Janata Dal in Bengaluru in 1988 to fight the Congress led by the then Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi. Ultimately, this faction was successful and VP Singh became the Prime Minister. The alliance was formed with the slogan “Indira” to fight the Congress faction led by Indira Gandhi in the 1971 general election. to be done, desh bachaoUnsuccessful. This alliance also had its roots in Bengaluru.
‘No political advantage’
Meanwhile, former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said that opposition parties are uniting with the sole aim of defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is not possible.
“Opposition parties will not get any political benefit from the meeting. Opposition parties are not strong in the country and most of the opposition parties are regional parties,” Mr. Bommai told reporters in Hubballi. He said that the regional parties are working as opposition parties in the respective states and no political benefit is going to be gained from the joint opposition meeting.