The two-day opposition leader’s INDIA conclave concluded in Mumbai declaring that they will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together “as far as possible”. A joint statement was released by the INDIA alliance parties after the meeting on Friday.
The seat-sharing arrangements in different states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take, said the statement. The alliance adopted a resolution to this effect and said its theme for the elections will be “Judega Bharat, Jeetega India, (India will unite, India will win)”.
“We, the I.N.D.I.A parties, hereby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible. Seat-sharing arrangements in different states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take,” the resolution said. “We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to organize public rallies at the earliest in different parts of the country on issues of public concern and importance,” it said further.
Notably, 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. A co-ordination committee was formed comprising senior leaders Sharad Pawar, K.C. Venugopal, Hemant Soren, and Tejashwi Yadav among others. Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Khage criticised BJP-led central government of “playing vendetta politics”.
“The communal poison that the BJP and RSS have spread over the last 9 years is now seen in hate crimes against innocent train passengers and against innocent school children…It is no surprise that when people involved in gruesome rape are released and felicitated in one part of the county, it encourages horrific crimes and parading of naked women in the other. In Modi ji’s India, the wife of a Kargil brave heart is also not spared,” Kharge said.
He also said that Prime Minister Modi wants to keep states under check. “Investors are forced to move their investments and projects out of opposition ruled states to states ruled by the BJP,” he added.