Amid reports of difference cropping up between various parties in the I.N.D.I.A bloc, the alliance has decided to reschedule the meeting of party heads to the third week of December. Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had called a meeting of the I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders for Wednesday.
This, however, was met with lukewarm response by several of the front leaders. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that she would go ahead with her state programs as she was not aware of the meeting call.
“I don’t know, I have no information so I kept a programme in North Bengal…If we had the information, we wouldn’t have scheduled those programmes. We would have definitely gone (for the meeting), but we have not received any information,” the TMC chief said on Monday.
According to Congress sources, several key opposition leaders will not be able to attend the meeting that was earlier scheduled on Wednesday.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will not be able to come to Delhi as several areas of the state have been badly hit by Cyclone Mandous. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not be able to make it to the national capital owing to his illness. Similarly, West Bengal Mamata Banerjee would have given it a miss owing to a wedding in her family.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had informed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge of his inability to make it for a meeting on Wednesday.
“I will be busy here. I spoke to Kharge Ji yesterday, maybe a representative from our side will go” Hemant Soren told reportes in Ranchi.
However, a coordination meeting of Parliamentary leaders of the I.N.D.I.A bloc will be held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge residence on Wednesday.
Gurdeep Singh Sappal, the Coordinator of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge confirmed the meeting.
“A coordination meeting of Parliamentary Party leaders of India Alliance will be at 6 pm on December 6th, 2023 at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Thereafter, meeting of Party Presidents/ Heads of the India Alliance will be scheduled in third week of December at a date convenient to all,” Sappal said in a post on ‘X’.
Seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, which are just four months away, is likely to be at the top of the agenda. The next I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting would also be crucial for Congress, particularly as the party lost Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, the Hindi heartland states that send a large number of members to the Parliament.