The second day of the I.N.D.I.A. coalition meeting concluded in Mumbai on Friday with Opposition leaders releasing a joint statement declaring to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together “as far as possible”.
It further announced that the seat-sharing arrangement among the 28 parties of the bloc in different states will begin soon and it will be carried out in a collaborative spirit of “give-and-take”.
All the member parties of the bloc will organise public rallies soon in different parts of the country on several issues. The theme for their campaigns will be in line with the theme – ‘Judega Bharat, Jeetega India’.
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Seat-sharing will be finalised by September 30, sources said, PTI reported.
Amid speculation of early polls and the formation of a panel to explore the possibility of ‘one nation, one election’, Opposition bloc leaders took crucial decisions, including setting up a 14-member coordination committee that will act as the top decision-making body of the alliance and will start work on seat sharing.
The committee comprises senior leaders, including Sharad Pawar, KC Venugopal, MK Stalin, Hemant Soren, Abhishek Banerjee, Sanjay Raut and Tejashwi Yadav among others.
A total of four sub-groups in the alliance have also been formed, each with separate responsibilities. Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge has urged the leaders to formulate bullet points to devise the bloc’s common agenda.
Meanwhile, Kharge criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government alleging them of ‘playing vendetta politics’. He also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not investigating the alleged stock manipulation of Adani Group.
“Yesterday, Shri Rahul Gandhi held a Press Conference here and questioned PM Narendra Modi’s silence on alleged stock manipulation by Adani Group. He demanded a JPC probe into charges of round-tripping and reports of Opaque Investment from a Mauritius-based company. It is unexplainable why the Prime Minister is not getting the matter investigated?” he asked during his address at the coalition meeting.
A two-day meeting of the Opposition bloc was held at Mumbai’s Hotel Grand Hyatt to formalise the coalition’s structure and chalk out their campaign strategy for the upcoming general elections.