Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar will not attend the opening day of the two-day joint opposition gathering beginning Monday in Bengaluru, the party announced.
Senior Pawar, on the other hand, will attend the meeting on Tuesday, the second day of the meeting, according to Mahesh Bharet Tapase, Maharashtra Spokesperson of the NCP’s Sharad Pawar faction. “National President @NCPspeaks @PawarSpeaks Saheb and Executive President @supriya_sule will attend the meeting of opposition parties to be held in Bengaluru on Tuesday 18th July,” Tapase announced in a tweet.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also said “Pawar will attend the meeting in Bengaluru tomorrow morning.”
“After the Patna meeting, the Bengaluru meeting that will emerge today will be decisive. Shiv Sena Party Chief Uddhav Thackeray will attend the meeting. There was confusion about whether Sharad Pawar would attend the meeting or not. Pawar will attend the meeting in Bengaluru tomorrow morning. I am saying this with certainty. Hum Sab Ek Hai!,” Raut said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, big posters and banners have been seen on Race Course Road in Bengaluru welcoming leaders of various opposition parties for the joint opposition meeting at the Taj West End Hotel in the Karnataka capital.
Gearing up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of at least 26 Opposition parties will converge at a hotel in Bengaluru on July 17-18 as part of their efforts to present a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the Centre.
As per a tentative schedule, on Monday, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications, Jairam Ramesh, and Congress general secretary, KC Venugopal will hold a joint press conference at 11 am. All the opposition leaders will arrive for the afternoon meeting.
An informal meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 8 p.m. The meeting will begin at 11 a.m. on July 18 and will last until 4 p.m.
Following that, a news conference will be held to reveal the campaign strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On June 23, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called the first big Opposition meeting in Patna. At the meeting, opposition heavyweights such as Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, and West Bengal president Minister Mamata Banerjee discussed a strategy to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.