Lok Sabha Polls 2024: The INDIA bloc on Wednesday decided to start the process for determining seat-sharing ‘at the earliest’, announced Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal on Wednesday, adding that it was decided that member parties will hold joint public meetings across the country.
The Congress leader said that the first public meeting of the alliance will be held in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal in the first week of October on issues of rising prices, unemployment and corruption of the BJP government.
“The coordination committee decided to start the process of determining the seat-sharing. It was decided that the member parties will hold the talks and decide (seat-sharing) at the earliest,” Venugopal said, reading out from a joint statement.
“The first public meeting will be held at Bhopal in the first week of October on the issue of rising prices, unemployment and corruption of the BJP government. The parties present in the meeting agreed to take up the issue of the caste census,” the Congress leader said.
He also said the coordination committee authorised the sub-group of media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representatives.
The coordination and election strategy committee of the INDIA alliance met for the first time today at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar’s residence in New Delhi.
Among the members present at the meeting are: K C Venugopal (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena – UBT), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Raghav Chaddha (AAP), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Sanjay Jha (JD-U), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (NC ), and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP).
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who was called by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning today, skipped the meeting. Hemant Soren and Lalan Singh of JD(U) were also not present.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Wednesday slammed the INDIA bloc meeting as a get together of “Anti-Hindu Coordination Committee”, a retort used following DMK leaders’ criticism of Sanatan Dharma.