Congress President Sonia Gandhi has called an 18 opposition party meet on Friday, notably, the last day of the Parliament’s monsoon session, to discuss the upcoming strategy and action of the joint opposition. The meeting will be chaired by Sonia Gandhi. Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav has been invited to the meeting. Yadav, however, was on a three-day visit to Bihar.
West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is also expected to attend the meeting. The meeting is likely to discuss the opposition rally called by RJD chief Lalu Prasad in Patna on August 27, which will target the newly-formed BJP-JD-U alliance in Bihar under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The Janata Dal-United President last month snapped ties with Grand Alliance of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress to form a government in Bihar with the BJP. Senior leaders like Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav and Sitaram Yechury, are also likely to attend the meeting, sources said. Since Sharad Yadav is in Patna, he may be represented by Ali Anwar Ansari
Apart from the Congress, Left parties, TMC, RJD, JD(U), NCP, JMM, DMK, NC, SP, BSP, RLD, JD-S, Kerala Congress, AIUDF besides some others are slated to participate in the meeting. The 18 opposition parties had earlier decided to meet once a month to discuss various crucial issues and maintain better coordination among themselves to ‘unitedly’ take on the government.
