Riding high on speculations that the Opposition parties led by Congress under the INDIA Bloc may tally better that incumbent BJP-led NDA in this year’s general elections, top leaders of the Bloc are likely to meet on June 1 to assess their performance in the Lok Sabha elections and chalk out strategy ahead of the results. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has convened the meeting in Delhi when the last phase of polling will be underway.

Sources said Opposition leaders will discuss their strategy ahead of the June 4 results and assess their performance in the seven-phase elections. The ruling alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also claimed that it would form the Government at the Centre for the third successive time.

Among those invited for the meeting is Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is also convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and is currently on interim bail by the Supreme Court in the Delhi excise policy case. He has to surrender on June 2.

Others invited are Sharad Pawar of NCP, Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena, Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, Akhilesh Yadav from Samajwadi Party, Kalpana Soren (Hemant’s Soren’s wife) from JMM, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin who have contested the ensuing Lok Sabha polls under an alliance with the Congress in several States.

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah are also part of the meeting scheduled for which the coordination command has been tasked to top Congress leaders Bhupesh Baghel and Ashok Gehlot, sources said. 

Twenty-eight Opposition parties came together to form the INDIA Bloc then initiated by JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar followed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last June. Later in Nitish, and subsequently Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD switched over to the NDA and Sharad Pawar-led NCP too broke away. 

Mamata, who too walked out of the INDIA Bloc days before the elections, has already sent feelers that her party would be supporting the Congress Bloc post the poll results in case the coalition is in position to form the Government.

“My analysis of the last six phases is that the BJP will not cross the 200-seat mark, while the INDIA Bloc will come to power in Delhi, in which West Bengal and TMC will play a pivotal part,” Mamata said.

“I will support the INDIA Bloc but will ensure that CAA and NRC are scrapped and the Uniform Civil Code is not implemented. Every bonafide Indian citizen of any community has the right to live without fear,” she asserted.

As a constituent of the alliance, the AAP had seat-sharing agreements with Congress in Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, and Haryana. However, the two are in direct fight against each other in Punjab.

TMC, however, is unlikely to attend the meeting on June 1, sources said, as it coincides with the last phase of voting in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls as Mamata and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee too will be voting on the day.