NEW DELHI/PATNA: The leaders of 15 parties gathered in Patna to plan for Mission 2024, beginning the greatest non-NDA unification initiative in years. By Friday, 14 of them were on the same page and in unity.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) insisted that with regard to the central legislation governing the management of administrative services in the capital, Congress must support Arvind Kejriwal.
The four-hour meeting at Nitish Kumar’s 1, Anne Marg residence in Bihar decided to meet again in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, which is governed by the Congress, on 10 or 12 to finalize their plan to field a common candidate against each of the BJP nominees in as many of the 543 open LS seats as possible.
Resolve the disputes in Delhi later, Mamta urges Congress and AAP for unity.
Omar Abdullah, the leader of the National Conference, reportedly urged during the conference that the anti-BJP coalition aim to field similar candidates in at least 450 seats. The anti-BJP vote should not split, and unity to be the priority, it was agreed. Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Bhagwant Mann, and other members of Kejriwal’s group to Patna skipped the joint press conference that followed the meeting.
DMK leader M K Stalin and Tamil Nadu’s chief minister were also not present. According to sources, Kejriwal requested that Congress make a statement at the conclusion of the meeting stating that it would support AAP on the ordinance as the opposition planned its unified strategy for 2024 in Nitish’s house. According to sources, neither Rahul Gandhi nor Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge provided the AAP with any specific assurances.
Mamata Banerjee, the TMC chairperson from West Bengal and one of those to have endorsed Kejriwal, asked the leaders of the AAP and Congress to settle their issues about the Delhi ordinance “over tea and biscuits” later.
She was quoted as adding that such a conversation wasn’t the best place to have it at the Patna conference. Nitish Kumar stated during the joint press conference that the group would meet again “soon” to finalize their strategy for taking on the BJP. “We had a productive meeting, and numerous leaders freely shared their opinions. We have made the decision to cooperate and run as one bloc in the Lok Sabha elections.
The alliance’s potential members, according to Nitish, are all working “in the national interest,” while the BJP is reportedly busy trying to rewrite India’s past.
Flexibility, according to Rahul, was essential, and everyone in the group would “work to protect our ideology.” The inaugural meeting’s location, according to Mamata, was important because “Whatever starts from Patna takes the shape of a public movement.”
There won’t be any elections in the future if this authoritarian administration (NDA) wins this election, she said. “We are all working together to defeat the BJP.” Sharad Pawar, the leader of the NCP, cited the “JP Movement” of Jayaprakash Narayan as the impetus for the parties’ coalition against the BJP. Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, has remarked that “you need a big heart to create a big platform.”
