Bengaluru: India's secular democracy has to be 'safeguarded and protected,' the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri said, ahead of the second round of Opposition meeting hosted by Congress in Bengaluru. "The fact that the meeting is taking place, the fact that larger number of parties are attending and the fact that some small issues of friction have also been resolved," Yechuri said.
"Today, in our country there is a determination that India.. the character of the Indian Republic which is the secular democratic character that has to be safeguarded and protected," the CPI(M) leader who flew into the City for the meeting late on Sunday night said, underscoring the development of much needed unity among Opposition.
Sources said top leaders of 26 opposition parties have confirmed their attendance to the two-day brainstorming session in Bengaluru from Monday. The meeting's agenda includes chalking out of a strategy to unitedly fight against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. On the eve of the meeting hosted by it, the Congress clarified that it will oppose the ordinance on Delhi services in Parliament, a key condition put by the Aam Aadmi Party to attend the talks.
Fifteen parties attended the last meeting for opposition unity hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23. "This time we are expecting leaders of 26 parties," a source said. The opposition meeting also comes in the backdrop of the split in the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the West Bengal panchayat polls which saw widespread violence that claimed many lives with state units of the Congress and Left parties accusing the TMC government of oppression.
The sources said the opposition parties will chart out a joint plan across the country against the policies of the BJP, especially after the NCP split in Maharashtra. They said that the leaders will announce steps to further opposition unity to take on the BJP and "expose its attempts at toppling opposition governments and taking control over non-BJP-ruled states through the governors". (with PTI inputs)
