INDIA bloc huddle postponed to third week of December, says Congress

Amid reports of difference cropping up between various parties in the INDIA bloc, the alliance has decided to reschedule the meeting of party heads to the third week of December. Earlier Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had called a meeting of the INDIA bloc leadesr for Wednesday.

This however was met with lukewarm response by several of the front leaders. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that she would go ahead with her state programs as she was not aware of the meeting call.

"I don't know, I have no information so I kept a programme in North Bengal...If we had the information, we wouldn't have scheduled those programmes. We would have definitely gone (for the meeting), but we have not received any information," the TMC chief said on Monday.

According to Congress sources, several key opposition leaders will not be able to attend the meeting that was earlier scheduled on Wednesday.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will not be able to come to Delhi as several areas of the state have been badly hit by Cyclone Mandous. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not be able to make it to the national capital owing to his illness. Similarly, West Bengal Mamata Banerjee would have given it a miss owing to a wedding in her family.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had informed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge of his inability to make it for a meeting on Wednesday.

"I will be busy here. I spoke to Kharge Ji yesterday, maybe a representative from our side will go" Hemant Soren told reportes in Ranchi.

However, a coordination meeting of Parliamentary leaders of the INDIA bloc will be held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge residence on Wednesday.

Gurdeep Singh Sappal, the Coordinator of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge confirmed the meeting.

"A coordination meeting of Parliamentary Party leaders of India Alliance will be at 6 pm on December 6th, 2023 at the residence of Congress President Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge. Thereafter meeting of Party Presidents/ Heads of the India Alliance will be scheduled in third week of December at a date convenient to all," Sappal said in a post on 'X'.

Seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, which are just four months away, is likely to be at the top of the agenda. The next INDIA bloc meeting would also be crucial for Congress, particularly as the party lost Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the Hindi heartland states that send a large number of members to the Parliament.

However, the Congress could find the going tough in this meeting, with key ally Samajwadi Party having struck a beligerent tone against the Congress in the assembly elections. SP boss Akhilesh Yadav had accused the Congress of betraying the SP by not giving it tickets to contest in a potential alliance with the Congress in MP.

The Congress now desperately needs the alliance to take off, if it harbours any hope of giving PM Narendra Modi and the BJP competition in the 2024 election.

INDIA or 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance' is a group of 28 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.

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 during August 31-September 1.

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 they have chosen 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.