Leaders of major opposition parties to meet after Karnataka elections: Congress sources
New Delhi(PTI): A meeting of top opposition leaders of around 19 parties for forging a joint front against the BJP will be held after the Karnataka assembly elections, Congress sources said on Monday.
The leaders were to meet up by the end of April earlier. Sources said the meeting has been delayed because of the May 10 Karnataka assembly elections.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to host the meeting sometime next month and has already spoken to leaders of several other parties in this regard, the sources said. There has been a flurry of meetings in the Opposition camp which has shown a sense of urgency in recent weeks for taking forward talks to put up a united front against the BJP.
On Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, saying that efforts were on to bring on board as many opposition parties as possible.
Sources said Kharge is also likely to speak to Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee in the coming days.
Nitish Kumar had met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi earlier this month.
No welfare work is being done by the present dispensation which is only relying on publicity, the JD(U) leader said on Monday attacking the BJP after meeting Akhilesh Yadav at the SP office in Lucknow.
"I am not looking for any position for myself. My endeavour is to work for the country's good," Kumar, who was accompanied by RJD leader and Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, told reporters.
He alleged that efforts are being made to change the history of the country. Akhilesh Yadav raised the issue of price rise and said there was a need to remove the BJP government without any delay.
The Bihar chief minister had come to Lucknow after meeting Banerjee in Kolkata earlier in the day.
Banerjee asked Nitish Kumar to set up a meeting of all opposition parties in Bihar to "prepare together" for the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
"I have made just one request to Nitish Kumar. Jayaprakash ji's movement started from Bihar.
"If we have an all-party meeting in Bihar, we can then decide where we have to go next," said Banerjee after the meeting, adding that the first meeting would be "gharoa" (informal) and issues like a common manifesto, etc. could come later.
Socialist leader Jayprakash Narayan, popularly called JP, launched his `Total Revolution' movement against alleged misrule and corruption in 1974 from Patna.
"I want the BJP to become zero. They have become a big hero with the media's support, lies and fake videos," she claimed.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
