Next Opposition meeting to be held on July 17-18 in Bengaluru: Congress' Venugopal

Launching a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the recent political drama in Maharashtra, Venugopal said the development will not affect the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra.

New Delhi: The next meeting of Opposition parties will be held in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18, party's General Secretary K C Venugopal said on Monday. The Congress leader said that Sunday's development in Maharashtra where Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar was inducted into chief minister Eknath Shinde's cabinet will not impact the Opposition unity.

"After a hugely successful All-Opposition meeting in Patna, we will be holding the next meeting in Bengaluru on 17 and 18 July, 2023. We are steadfast in our unwavering resolve to defeat the fascist and undemocratic forces and present a bold vision to take the country forward," Venugopal took to Twitter to post.

Launching a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the recent political drama in Maharashtra, Venugopal said the development will not affect the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra. "PM Modi made a big allegation recently against the NCP leaders for corruption and now we saw this drama. It is a clear sponsored game of ED and their agencies. It will not affect MVA," Venugopal said.

"We will fight against BJP more aggressively. This is not going to affect opposition unity, this is NCP's issue. Sharad Pawar is the tallest leader of the party and he will be able to handle the situation. Some leaders changing the party does not mean that the supporters of the party and other members will go with them," the Congress leader said.

On June 29, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said that the next meeting of Opposition leaders has been shifted from Shimla to Bengaluru owing to the prevailing weather conditions in Himachal Pradesh. The meeting he had said will be held on July 13 and 14.

Kharge had earlier said that the next meeting of like-minded parties will be held in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla. He said that the opposition parties will meet in Shimla to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"We will meet again in July in Shimla to prepare an agenda on how to move ahead together while working in our respective states to fight BJP in 2024," Kharge said at a joint press conference in the presence of other opposition leaders including TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and RJD veteran leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and party leader Rahul Gandhi.

On June 23, a meeting of opposition leaders was called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar which was attended by leaders of parties opposed to the BJP.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, MP Sanjay Raut, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah attended the meeting. (ANI)