Press conference on the evening of 1 September(September 1.) 

New Delhi. The next meeting of ‘India’, an alliance of opposition parties, is likely to be held in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1. (September 1.)  According to sources, it will be held on the lines of the Bengaluru meeting, in which the leaders will hold informal talks on August 31 before their main meeting the next day. A source said that the meeting of the opposition will be of two days and will be held on August 31 and September 1. In which all the leaders will approve the dates. Its possible venue will be a hotel in Powai and there will be a press conference on the evening of 1 September. There were many such dates which were talked about earlier also but could not be discussed because all the leaders were not vacant on those dates.

The third meeting of the opposition alliance is being jointly organized by the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance – the Shiv Sena (UBT) with the support of the Congress and the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP. The MVA constituents were negotiating the program of the meeting. Significantly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also met RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and discussed several issues including moving forward for the opposition group ‘India’. The first meeting of the ‘India’ block was held in Patna in June and the second in Bengaluru last month. The opposition alliance is also likely to announce committees for work such as the 2024 general election campaign and increase mutual contact before the elections.

Sources said that a joint secretariat will also be announced soon for better coordination between the parties. During the meeting, the parties are expected to sort out their differences as much as possible, especially in the states where they are in direct electoral battle. In the Bengaluru meeting, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced the name of the opposition group – Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance-India after a nearly 4-hour meeting of 26 parties. He had said that a committee of 11 members would also be constituted for coordination and a coordinator would be selected in the next meeting in Mumbai.

Significantly, the opposition alliance ‘India’ has 26 opposition parties – Congress, TMC, DMK, AAP, JD(U), RJD, JMM, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), SP, NC, PDP, CPI (M ), CPI, RLD, MDMK, Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK), VCK, RSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerwadi), and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).