India Bloc’s Crucial Meeting Today; Mamata Banerjee Prioritizes Seat Sharing

The INDIA bloc will convene its scheduled key meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss seat sharing, a joint campaign blueprint, and redrawing the joint strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This comes a day after 78 members of Parliament from opposition parties across the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were suspended until at least the end of the winter session.

92 opposition MPs have now been suspended until at least the end of the session as a result of last week’s suspension. Fourteen of them must appear before the privileges committee, which has the authority to suggest a lengthier suspension.

Mamata Banerjee, the supreme of the Trinamool Congress and West Bengal’s chief minister, stated on Monday that the INDIA bloc’s prime ministerial candidate will be chosen following the general elections of 2024. She also expressed confidence that the alliance will resolve all outstanding issues, including seat-sharing, in order to defeat the BJP, one day ahead of the opposition alliance meeting scheduled to take place at the Ashoka Hotel.

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A coalition of opposition parties, including the Congress, is known as INDIA, or the “Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.”

On Monday, Banerjee also met with Uddhav Thackeray, the head of Shiv Sena (UBT), and Arvind Kejriwal, the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party. Regarding the talks at the approximately 45-minute meeting held at TMC MP and Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s South Avenue home, Kejriwal remained silent.

On Tuesday, Kejriwal is expected to go to an undisclosed location to take a 10-day Vipassana meditation training.

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Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on social media platform “X” that the fourth meeting of INDIA party leaders would take place at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, in New Delhi.

Top points on Opposition’s INDIA bloc meeting today:

• One of the main agendas of the fourth meeting of the Opposition’s grand alliance would be finalising the seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha polls.
• Mamata Banerjee dismissed suggestions that the INDIA bloc has lost time in putting things in order, saying, “It is better late than never”. Banerjee expressed confidence that a three-way alliance is very much possible in West Bengal between her TMC, the Congress and the Left.
• Mamata Banerjee also made light of the BJP’s confidence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will return for a third term, saying 2024 is not a done deal.
• Speaking with reporters, Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said the committees that were formed earlier have been working behind the scenes and preparations were being made for the polls. He said everyone in the opposition ranks would play its part and asserted that regional parties are very strong.
• Asked about the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s role in the INDIA bloc going forward, Yadav said everyone’s role is the same and everyone’s objective is the same which is to oust “divisive forces” from power.
• Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray also arrived in New Delhi on Monday evening for the bloc’s meeting.
• 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.
• The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 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 Lok Sabha elections while announcing that seat-sharing arrangements would be finalised at the earliest 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).

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INDIA bloc meeting: What’s on the agenda?

The Congress will need to prioritize seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections, which are only four months away. This is because the party lost the assembly elections in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.

According to a senior Congress leader who spoke to news agency PTI, the parties plan to challenge Modi at the conference by advancing their unifying theme, “Main Nahin, Hum” (We, Not Me).

Coming up with a single alternative programme to oppose the current government is the main task facing the leaders of the opposition parties who have united to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Due to disagreements among its members, the INDIA bloc’s immediate difficulty is also to come to an agreement on the need for a convener, a spokesperson, and a shared secretariat.