Party waiting for official invitation to INDIA bloc meeting: AAP MP Sandeep Pathak
Dec 11, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 11 : After the announcement of the next meeting of the leaders of the INDIA bloc, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sandeep Pathak on Monday said that the party is eagerly waiting for an official invitation to the meeting.
The next meeting of the leaders of the INDIA bloc will be held on December 19 in the national capital.
"AAP has been very strongly supporting the INDIA Alliance and is eagerly waiting for an official invitation for the meeting seeing the upcoming Lok Sabha elections," Pathak told ANI.
When asked about the issue of timing raised by some leaders, the AAP MP said, "All those who are sensitive and sincere about the INDIA bloc, they must have raised the issue of timing for a good cause. I think all opposition parties stand united and will discuss all aspects of the agenda as and when it is devised".
Taking to 'X', Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "The 4th meeting of the leaders of INDIA parties will be held on Tuesday, December 19th, 2023, in New Delhi at 3 p.m."
Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders for December 6.
However, the meeting was cancelled as key opposition leaders, including Janata Dal-United (JDU) Supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin and Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav did not gave their confirmation of attending the meeting.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said that he was down with fever so he could not make it to the mega meeting.
"I want that work should progress. It was being said in the news that I won't attend the meeting. This is nonsense, I was down with a fever at that time. Is it possible that I will go not to the meeting? In the next meeting of the alliance, we should chalk out a plan for the future," said Nitish Kumar.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had informed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge of his inability to make it to a meeting on Wednesday. "I will be busy here. I spoke to Kharge Ji yesterday, maybe a representative from our side will go" Soren told reporters in Ranchi.
Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that she was not informed about the meeting.
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin was engaged due to the cyclone fury in the state.
Seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, which are just four months away, is likely to be at the top of the agenda for the next INDIA bloc meeting and will be crucial for Congress, particularly as the party lost Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the Hindi heartland states.
The first meeting of the joint opposition convened in Patna on June 23 and the second meeting was held in Bengaluru on July 17-18. The third meeting happened in Mumbai on August 31-September 1.
INDIA or 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance' is a group of opposition parties, including the Congress. The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by PM Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prevent it from winning a third straight term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the Mumbai meeting, the opposition parties adopted resolutions to collectively contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections while announcing that seat-sharing arrangements would be finalized as soon as possible through a spirit of give-and-take.
The theme chosen by the INDIA bloc for the elections is "Judega Bharat, Jeetega India" (India will unite, India will win) to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.
