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After a Congress assurance on the Delhi ordinance issue, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday announced it would attend the joint Opposition meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday, taking the number of parties participating to 24. Opposition leaders will meet over dinner on Monday, and talks will take place the next day.
In the rival camp, Union home minister Amit Shah welcomed Om Prakash Rajbhar, the chief of Uttar Pradesh-based Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Sunday. Rajbhar was an ally of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2022 UP Assembly polls. The party has six MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly), including its Mau legislator Abbas Ansari, son of convicted gangster Mukhtar Ansari.
According to BJP sources, at least 31 NDA constituents, including half a dozen new ones, will meet over dinner at New Delhi's Ashoka Hotel on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president J P Nadda will attend, as will the leaders of these parties.
Of the six new entrants in the NDA, Rajbhar-led SBSP is from UP, Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Maharashtra and the rest four, including Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) of Chirag Paswan from Bihar.
Key parties missing from the BJP's NDA list are the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Despite recent discussions, the estranged allies couldn't bury their past differences. But the BJP is currently persisting with increasing the size of the NDA's umbrella.
The top BJP leadership had contacted Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), an ally of the SP in western UP. Chaudhary had skipped the June 23 meeting of the Opposition but is slated to attend the Bengaluru conclave. On Sunday, former Karnataka CM, BJP leader Basavaraj Bommai indicated in Hubbali that the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) were discussing the possibility of an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls.
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All isn't well between the BJP and its ally in the coalition government it runs in Haryana, Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said the BJP-JJP was for government formation, not an electoral truck.
Several of the BJP's allies in southern and eastern India that will attend Tuesday's meeting have announced that they oppose the Uniform Civil Code. According to sources in the BJP, indications are that the party's top leadership could put the issue on the back burner.
While the NDA meeting is more a show of strength, the Opposition is working on issuing a joint declaration after the Bengaluru meeting. It believes it would need to send a stronger signal of unity after the split in the NCP in Maharashtra dented its morale.
According to sources, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's presence at Saturday's parliamentary strategy group meeting of the party helped with the decision to unequivocally state that the Congress will oppose the Centre's ordinance related to the control of services in Delhi. Subsequently, the AAP confirmed its participation at the Bengaluru meeting.
Gandhi's presence at the Bengaluru meeting could also help in reaching a consensus over a unanimous resolution and joint action, including a joint public rally, once the Monsoon session of Parliament concludes.
NDA constituents
Apart from the BJP, six new entrants in the NDA and JJP, its other members include the AIADMK, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, UP's Apna Dal and Nishad Party, All Jharkhand Students Union and Andhra Pradesh's Jana Sena that Pawan Kalyan leads.
NDA's partners in the northeast are the National People's Party, Nagaland's NDPP, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, Asom Gana Parishad, Assam's Bodo People's Party and UPPL Mizo National Front and Tripura's IPFT.
Opposition meet attendees
Other than the 15 that attended the Patna opposition meeting, Chaudhary-led RLD and several smaller parties from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, such as the MDMK, KDMK, VCK, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Kerala Congress (Joseph) and Kerala Congress (Mani), and RSP and Forward Bloc have been invited for the Bengaluru meeting.
