The newly-formed opposition Alliance INDIA bloc will hold its first coordination committee meeting at NCP leader Sharad Pawar in the national capital on Wednesday evening. The meeting is expected to focus on seat sharing and election strategy ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.
Over 14 members from different political parties that form the INDIA bloc are members of the committee. They include K C Venugopal (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena-UBT), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Raghav Chadha (AAP), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Lalan Singh (JD-U), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (National Conference) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP). However, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee and a member from CPI-M will skip the meeting.
While the CPI-M has not yet nominated any member to the committee and will be absent at the meeting, the TMC leader has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Teachers' recruitment scam case.
CPI leader D Raja said the meeting will review the decisions or proposals discussed earlier. "In the Mumbai meeting, we discussed issues adequately. Now the time has come we should go to the people and mobilise them. For this, we should organise public rallies, and public meetings on specific issues in different parts of the country," he said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut told reporters that the meeting will discuss the agenda adopted at the Mumbai meeting. He also blamed the Centre for the absence of Abhishek Banerjee.
"Everybody is going to attend the meeting, except TMC. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee is a member of this committee, he is not attending this meeting because the ED and the BJP don't want him to. The central government does not want Abhishek Banerjee to reach Delhi and participate in the coordination committee meeting of INDIA. He got summoned by the ED today. We will keep his seat vacant and give a message about how the central agencies are torturing the members of INDIA," Raut told reporters.
Seat sharing
Sources said that leaders of several opposition parties have sought an early seat-sharing formula to be worked out to ensure that a joint candidate is put up from the opposition side against the BJP candidates in Lok Sabha seats. The resolution issued on September 1, after the third meeting of the bloc, said the parties would contest polls together "as far as possible", and that seat sharing in arrangements in different states would be "initiated immediately" and concluded "at the earliest".
While Raja said that formal and informal talks were going on seat sharing, the first meeting will formally discuss the issue.
Delhi Minister and AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj too said that the parties will come up with a formula for seat sharing. "It is a big matter for the country that large opposition parties that are governing around 12 states are holding meetings continuously. Several attempts were made to create a rift between them but they are together positively with one aim - form a government that will work for the welfare of the poor. I think all the parties will come up with a formula and on that basis, or based on prior experience, there will be seat sharing," he added.