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Opposition Unity Meeting Live Updates: Will fight Lok Sabha polls together, say opposition parties after Patna huddle; next meeting in Shimla

THE TIMES OF INDIA | Jun 23, 2023, 19:19:35 IST

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Opposition Unity Meeting Live Updates: Will fight Lok Sabha polls together, say opposition parties after Patna huddle; next meeting in Shimla

Opposition Meeting in Patna Live Updates: Opposition leaders today held a joint press conference in Patna after the conclusion of an Opposition parties' meeting held in the city. They said the second round of the meeting will be held in Shimla next month. Reacting to the opposition leaders' meeting in Patna today, to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's JP Nadda said that the leaders who were jailed by former PM Indira Gandhi are welcoming Rahul Gandhi. The meeting was hosted by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav. Sources said the meeting was being seen as a starting point for the opposition parties to come together to take on the Narendra Modi-led BJP. Therefore, a basic outline and roadmap for opposition unity are likely to be deliberated upon with the contentious issue of seat sharing and leadership questions to be avoided for now, they said. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab's Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu's MK Stalin, Jharkhand's Hemant Soren, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Maharashtra's former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, and NCP president Sharad Pawar are among the leaders attending the first high-level Opposition meeting. Stay with TOI for the latest developments

10:53 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Unity Meeting Live: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge were received by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as they arrived at Patna airport to attend the opposition meeting, which will be held later today

10:52 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting Live: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury arrives at Patna airport to attend the opposition meeting later today. (PTI)

10:47 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition meeting in Patna: NCP chief Sharad Pawar arrives in Patna

10:22 (IST) Jun 23

This meeting is part of India's democratic system. Democracy gets strengthened when the opposition unites... Whenever the opposition has fought, it has fought under collective leadership. Our leader will be chosen when elections are held

RJD leader Alok Kumar

10:18 (IST) Jun 23

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi arrive in Patna for opposition leaders' meeting

— TOIPatna (@TOIPatna)

10:04 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting Live: Security heightened, barricading on roads leading to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's residence ahead of the opposition meeting later today in Patna

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09:31 (IST) Jun 23

We have to make a strategy for the national level. Everyone believes that we have to fight the elections unitedly. This is the first meeting and more meetings will be held after this

Congress's Tariq Anwar

09:30 (IST) Jun 23

Watch | National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah arrives in Patna to attend the Opposition leaders' meeting (ANI)

— TOIPatna (@TOIPatna)

08:47 (IST) Jun 23

Video | We all want to fight together against BJP and our agenda is to remove the BJP govt... We will take a decision on this (on supporting AAP against the Centre's ordinance) before the Parliament session, says Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as he leaves for the opposition meeting in Patna

— TOIPatna (@TOIPatna)

08:46 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting Live: We welcome that all opposition parties are coming together to defeat the ideology of BJP and RSS. If all parties fight unitedly then BJP will be reduced to 100 seats in the country, says Bihar Congress president Dr Akhilesh Prasad Singh on opposition meeting

08:35 (IST) Jun 23

Watch | Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leaves for Patna from his residence in Delhi to attend the opposition meeting

— TOIPatna (@TOIPatna)

08:29 (IST) Jun 23

All leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav are united to defeat PM Modi in 2024. It's a big challenge for the BJP that if all opposition parties get united then their political shop will be closed

JDU's Neeraj Kumar

08:12 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Unity Meeting Live: Opposition meeting a bid to protect family-oriented parties, alleges Sushil Kumar Modi

Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP functionary Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday led the charge against the first significant meeting of leaders of non-saffron parties being held here on Friday to forge opposition unity, maintaining that most of them are gathering only to protect their “family-oriented parties”. “Those who imposed Emergency, arrested Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) and imprisoned him, imposed censorship on media freedom are coming to the land of JP, and also talk high on democracy,” Modi said.

07:50 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting in Patna Live: This is a 'Gathbandhan of Thugs'. They are preparing to fool the country. They have no principle, or policy and all are involved in corruption: Bihar BJP President Samrat Chaudhary

07:05 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting Live: RLD chief to skip opposition meet, but party extends ‘full support’

Days after reports emerged of strained relations between Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary and senior alliance partner Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, the former announced on Thursday that he won’t be attending the opposition meet in Patna owing to his prior engagement abroad. The party, however, said it had extended “full support” and “commitment” to the united opposition meeting.

07:03 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting in Patna Live: Besides Mufti, at least four former CMs — Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Uddhav Tha ckeray — will be part of the meeting from 11 am at Nitish’s 1, Anne Marg residence.

07:02 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting Live: Of the six CMs invited to the meeting, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann and their Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin landed in Patna by Thursday evening along with CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.

07:02 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Unity Meeting in Patna Live:Opposition meet likely to focus on deliverables, name for bloc

There are indications the meeting may put off the main objective of getting the attendees to acquiesce into each other’s demands, and would rather focus on possible deliverables like a name for the blocin-the-making, decide the date and venue of the next round and on the drafting of a common minimum programme.

07:02 (IST) Jun 23

The focus of the firstever opposition gathering of this scale in recent years will be on working out a formula to field one common candidate against BJP and its allies in most of the 543 Lok Sabha seats that will go to polls.

JD(U) chief spokesperson K C Tyagi

07:01 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting in Patna Live: Eye on CMP, formula to field common candidate in each seat

Leaders of at least 15 opposition parties at the Centre will kickstart the effort to give concrete shape to the ambition of engaging the BJP in direct fights with “secular” candidates in more than 400 Lok Sabha constituencies with a discussion on a potential common minimum programme (CMP) and aroadmap for the formation of abroad-based front.

07:01 (IST) Jun 23

Opposition Meeting Live: Opposition leaders to kick-start 'Mission 2024' with Patna huddle

Top leaders of Opposition parties will meet here on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asserting that they will fight together "like a family" to take on the NDA "one to one".