The INDIA alliance discussions with regard to putting up a united fight against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections sputtered ahead after a long gap this evening, with the floor leaders of the parties in Parliament meeting at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Floor leaders of 17 parties in Parliament attended the meeting, which marked a formal resumption of talks with regard to fighting the Lok Sabha elections unitedly. The talks have resumed after a gap of around three months. The alliance discussions had been put on the backburner as the Congress, the principal opposition party, was preoccupied with fighting the Assembly elections.
Kharge was accompanied by party colleagues Rahul Gandhi and K.C. Venugopal in the meeting. The 17 parties represented in the meeting were the Congress, DMK, JD(U), Samajwadi Party, RJD, AAP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP, RLD, National Conference, IUML, RSP, JMM, VCK, Kerala Congress(M) and MDMK. The Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT were not present in the meeting.
The meeting was held in the backdrop of the Congress' drubbing in the three Hindi heartland states
of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The Congress had shown a disinclination towards sharing seats with alliance partners in the Assembly elections, and the regional parties that constitute the grouping have already made their ire known.
Kharge had invited opposition leaders for a meeting of the alliance scheduled for today. However, with prominent leaders, including Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin expressing their inability to attend the meeting, a decision to postpone it was taken on Tuesday. A new date for the meeting is yet to be announced.
The Congress has downplayed the significance of the meeting held this evening in an apparent effort to reject the idea that it is a poor substitute for the meet of top leaders of the parties that was planned originally. It has attempted to project it as an interaction held to discuss parliamentary issues.
“A meeting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha floor leaders of the INDIA alliance was held. Many issues of Parliament were discussed. There was a discussion about the upcoming bills, the government's behaviour and other things,” said Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Naseer Hussain after the meeting.
Asked about the absence of TMC and Shiv Sena-UBT in the meeting, he said the parties had conveyed earlier that they would not be able to attend the meeting today.
According to sources, the TMC will attend the swearing in ceremony of Telangana PCC chief Revanth Reddy as the chief minister of the state. It is learnt that Mamata was invited, but she will not be able to make it since she has prior engagements. TMC's leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien, it is learnt, will attend the swearing-in.
Hussain said the INDIA alliance leaders were being consulted about when the next meeting of the grouping can be held. He said the date of the meeting will be announced in a day or two.