New Delhi : The meeting of the Coordination Committee of the opposition INDIA bloc is scheduled to take place at the residence of Sharad Pawar, the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in New Delhi on the evening of September 13.
The Coordination Committee of the opposition INDIA bloc is scheduled to convene its inaugural meeting on Wednesday. According to available details, leaders from various opposition parties have called for an early agreement on seat-sharing to ensure the nomination of a unified opposition candidate against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates in Lok Sabha constituencies.
Nevertheless, numerous leaders have emphasized the necessity for these parties to set aside their egos and vested interests to reach such an agreement.
The significant 14-member panel of opposition leaders will gather for this crucial meeting at the residence of Sharad Pawar, the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in New Delhi on the evening of September 13.
While specific criteria have yet to be determined, it is likely to be based on the parties' recent performance in specific constituencies during previous elections.
Although the issue of seat sharing may not be conclusively settled during the Wednesday meeting, the leaders will outline a broad framework for their election campaign against the BJP, as reported by the news agency PTI, citing sources.
On the eve of the coordination committee's first meeting for the opposition alliance INDIA, Uddhav Thackeray, the chief of the Shiv Sena (UBT), met with Sharad Pawar in Mumbai. Their discussion, which included Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, lasted nearly 90 minutes.
Jayant Patil, the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) state unit chief who participated in the meeting, stated that discussions encompassed the coordination panel's gathering and the current political situation in Maharashtra. Patil expressed confidence that seat-sharing arrangements in Maharashtra, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, would be finalized shortly.
He mentioned that the 25 seats won by the BJP or its allies in the last Lok Sabha elections would be fairly distributed among the three Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners.
The Coordination cum Election Strategy Committee of the opposition INDIA bloc comprises 14 members, including representatives from Congress, DMK, JMM, Shiv Sena-UBT, RJD, AAP, SP, JD-U, CPI, National Conference, PDP, and TMC. A CPI-M representative has not been appointed yet, and the party's decision on representation will be made during its Polit Bureau meeting scheduled for September 16-17.
During the first meeting of the Opposition bloc in Patna in June, it was decided that the strongest candidate from each constituency would be chosen for the Lok Sabha elections.
A resolution issued on September 1 following the third bloc meeting stated that the parties would contest elections together "as far as possible" and that seat-sharing arrangements in various states would be initiated immediately and concluded "at the earliest."
According to opposition leaders, while states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar have sorted out their seat-sharing agreements, others like Delhi, Punjab, and West Bengal may pose challenges.
The meeting will also focus on finalizing the campaign strategy and scheduling rallies for the upcoming days.