Divided Opposition to meet today

New Delhi: Faultlines seemed to have appeared before the much-awaited Opposition meet at Patna on Friday.  A day before the crucial gathering of the Opposition heavyweights to strategize the moves for the 2024 general elections, the Aam Aadmi Party leader, Mr Arvind Kejriwal threatened to "walk out" of the meet if the Congress doesn't join the protest against the Centre's ordinance. While the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, Ms Mayawati targeted the Opposition parties, particularly Congress, Odisha and Telangana chief ministers, Mr Naveen Patnaik and K. Chandrashekhar Rao had earlier indicated that they would skip the meet. The Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary expressed his inability to attend the mega event öwing to a family function."

On the eve of the meet, the Congress and the AAP crossed swords by taking on each other.  Senior Congress leader, Mr Sandeep Dikshit responding to the AAP threat, lashed out saying "nobody is going to miss AAP, even if they skipped the meeting." He accused the AAP supremo  of "looking for excuses to break the Opposition unity."

It may be recalled that AAP has demanded that the ordinance promulgated by the Centre that effectively overrode a Supreme Court judgment on "control of services"  to be on the agenda for tomorrow's meet. The Congress, which is in a direct fight with AAP in Delhi  has maintained a stoic silence. Also the AAP's move to contest the forthcoming Rajasthan polls has set the alarm bells ringing for the Congress in the desert state.  The BSP chief Ms Mayawati, who was not invited to Patna hit out at the Opposition outfits saying-ït would have been better if these parties had come clean on their intentions." She wondered how long is this "moonh mein Ram bagal mein chhuri" going to  to last.

Those expected to participate include Tamil nadu CM, MK Stalin, Congress president, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader, Mr Rahul Gandhi, Trinamul Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand chief minister, Mr Hemant Soren, NCP leader5, Mr Sharad Pawar, AAP's Punjab  chief minister, Mr Bhagwant Mann and party supremo, Mr Arvind Kejriwal ,Jammu and Kashmir  Peoples Democratic Party chief, Ms Mehbooba Mufti., CPI(M) general secretary, Mr Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader, Mr D. Raja, Samajwadi Party chief, Mr Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena(UBT) chief, Mr Uddhav Thackerey, RJKD chief, Mr Tejashwi Yadav. The meeting was called by the JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister, Mr Nirtish Kumar.  

Questions had earlier been raised over the possibility of an "öpposition unity" as the outfits have their own "contradictions and electoral interests,"a Congress leader said. Sources revealed that the Congress could also rake up the raging violence before the forthcoming Panchayat polls in Bengal. "This could ruffle the TMC feathers,"the leader said. However, all eyes will be on the Congress and the role it intends to play during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.