New Delhi: At least 14 opposition parties will attend Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s proposed meeting on April 3 on “Social Justice, the way forward” in a show of strength amid ongoing efforts to forge different political combinations. The organizers expect the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party to attend the meeting.
The meeting on April 3 could be the first of a series in various states and comes after 14 opposition parties joined hands to move the court against “arbitrary use” of federal agencies like the ED and CBI.
“Opposition unity is a process that requires one step at a time. We are trying to create a greater common platform on important issues. Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged all opposition parties to come together to defeat the BJP.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, former CMs Akhilesh Yadav and Farooq Abdullah, BRS leader K Keshav Rao, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and his CPI counterparts D Raja, O’Brien and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal Will be present in the meeting to be held in hybrid mode.
Another leader said, “It has also been decided that Stalin will speak for half an hour and other participants will limit themselves to 7 minutes to ensure that everyone gets proper time to express their views.”
The Congress Party, IUML, and MDMK will also participate in the meeting on an issue that is important to each political outfit. One of the opposition leaders said that AAP has indicated that its Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh will attend the event in Chennai.
Though the Shiv Sena is yet to confirm it, opposition leaders believe that if Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s party and YSRCP attend the event, it will create a massive impact. This is because both the parties have been supporters of the Narendra Modi government and have maintained a distance from many opposition parties like the Congress. Some political functionaries involved in the planning indicated that the Chief Minister of West Bengal took the initiative to include Patnaik’s BJD in opposition programs and that NCP supremo Sharad Pawar was in talks with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The event will also seek to convey the message that the role of leadership is not limited to one or two contenders, but that every constituent in the opposition club has a vital role to play – a feature that has often been missing in earlier Third Front formations. .
“There is no scope for arrogance. This is the beginning of a series of events to be held in different states on a range of issues. The Chennai meeting also indicates that a major opposition player in a state should get support from other parties , a principle of leaders like Mamata Banerjee or K Chandrasekhar Rao,” the activist quoted above said.
