Opp parties' meet today to mull grand alliance viability

| | New Delhi
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Opp parties' meet today to mull grand alliance viability

Monday, 10 December 2018 | PNS | New Delhi

Opp parties' meet today to mull grand alliance viability

Mayawati keeps all guessing, Chandrababu is coordinator

The Opposition parties are meeting on Monday in Delhi as part of their exploratory exercise to form a grand alliance to take on the BJP in the next year’s Lok Sabha polls. The meeting comes day before the start of the Winter Session of Parliament and counting of the five State Assembly polls. Except BSP chief Mayawati, who has kept everyone guessing, leaders of all other major Opposition parties are expected to attend the meet.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is coordinating the meeting and has personally met several Opposition leaders to bring them on one table.

Naidu has set an example in trying to unite the Opposition by mending fences with arch-enemy Congress and forging an alliance with the grand old party in the Telangana elections.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy are expected to attend the meeting.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, Mualyam Singh Yadav, are likely to attend the meet, but Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is unlikely to take part. However sources said senior BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra might attend it. Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was also unlikely to be part of the meeting.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M K Stalin, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader Sharad Yadav are also among those likely to attend the meeting.

During the meeting at the Parliament House Annexe, the Opposition parties are expected to discuss their responses to Government bills and issues related to the Rafale deal and farmers.

Not only the heads of non-BJP parties, but also the Chief Ministers of Opposition parties from Kerala, Punjab and Puducherry have been invited.

“The main agenda of the meeting is to chart the future course of action for forming a non-BJP front,” said a party leader of an Opposition group. 

“Price rise, the ill-effects of demonetisation and the GST, unemployment and threats to the Constitution will also be on the agenda of the meeting,” NCP leader D P Tripathi said. Earlier, the meeting was planned for November 22, but had to be deferred because of the Assembly polls in five states.

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