Opposition meeting: Rahul Gandhi, Kharge arrive in Patna

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s president arrived in Patna today to attend a conference of opposition leaders that Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, was hosting. The goal of the gathering was to reach an agreement on creating a unified opposition front to fight the BJP.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Kharge said that the opposition parties’ agenda is to remove the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre and they all would fight together. “We all want to fight together against BJP and our agenda is to remove the BJP government,” Kharge said while talking to the media as he left for the opposition meeting in Bihar’s Patna.

Speaking on the issue of the Centre’s Ordinance put forward by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Congress President said that they will take a decision on this before the Parliament session.

“We will take a decision on this (on supporting AAP against the Centre’s ordinance) before the Parliament session,” he said.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar welcomed both the leaders on their arrival. Earlier, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah arrived in Bihar’s Patna to attend the Opposition leaders’ meeting.

Leaders of Opposition parties from across the country are set to meet in Patna to chalk out a strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

As leaders of several opposition parties arrived in Patna on Thursday, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary decided to skip the conclave due to a “pre-decided family program”. Chaudhary, however, hoped the meeting will be an “important milestone in the path of opposition unity”.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti were among the leaders who reached Patna ahead of the meeting.

On her arrival in Patna, Mamata Banerjee called on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) patriarch and former Bihar CM Lalu Yadav and his son and state Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.

The Opposition picked Patna as a venue for its meeting as it represents the 1974 call of total revolution by Jayaprakash Narayan that toppled Indira Gandhi’s majority government.