NDA Meeting: NDA vs opposition show of strength next week with eye on Lok Sabha polls 2024 | India News

NEW DELHI: With two rival mega meetings lined up next week, the country is set to witness a high-octane political showdown which may well set the tone for next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
A galaxy of opposition leaders are expected to attend a two-day conclave in Bengaluru on Monday and Tuesday to finalise the contours of the roadmap to take on the BJP in 2024.
At the same time, the NDA will also hold a meeting of its allies in the national capital on July 18.The meeting will be chaired by BJP chief JP Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be attended by several new allies and some former ones.
The NDA vs opposition show of strength comes at a time when both sides are stepping up efforts to mobilize allies in time for the Lok Sabha elections.
While the opposition parties are trying to forge a united front to take on BJP, which secured landslide victories in both 2014 and 2019, the NDA is stitching together new alliances and bringing back old parties into the fold in an effort to bolster its presence among different communities, including OBCs and Dalits.
2nd opposition meeting
According to reports, senior leaders of as many as 26 opposition parties are likely to attend the two-day brainstorming session in Bengaluru from Monday.
15 parties attended the last meeting for opposition unity which was hosted by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on June 23.
“This time we are expecting leaders of 26 parties,” a source said.
On the eve of the meeting hosted, which will be hosted by Congress this time, the Aam Aadmi Party too confirmed its presence.
The announcement came after Congress clarified that it will oppose the ordinance on Delhi services in Parliament, a key condition put by AAP to attend the talks.
Notably, the opposition meeting also comes in the backdrop of the split in the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the West Bengal panchayat polls which saw widespread violence that claimed many lives with state units of the Congress and Left parties accusing the TMC government of oppression.
A weakened NCP could be a setback for the opposition leaders who are seeking to project a united front.
The sources said the opposition parties will chart out a joint agitational plan across the country against the policies of the BJP, especially after the NCP split in Maharashtra.
They said that the leaders will announce steps to further opposition unity to take on the BJP and “expose its attempts at toppling opposition governments and taking control over non-BJP-ruled states through the Governors”.
“It will be a decisive meeting. Several issues will be discussed,” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said.
BJP show of strength
Amid opposition unity efforts, the BJP-led NDA has also called a meeting of parties on July 18 which will be attended by new allies like Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan, Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Jitan Ram Manjhi and OBC leader Om Prakash Rajbhar.

Other key allies, including the Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, the NCP faction headed by Ajit Pawar and several smaller parties from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and regional parties from the northeastern states, are among those expected to attend the NDA meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present at the meeting, seen as the BJP’s show of strength of the ruling bloc, National Democratic Alliance, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
This is for the first time during the second term of the Modi government that an NDA meeting of this scale is taking place after a number of old and key BJP allies, including Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Janata Dal (United), severed ties with the party over a host of issues.
While there is no clarity yet on how many parties will be represented in the meeting, sources asserted that their numbers will see a big rise from the 14 which had recently issued a joint letter against the major opposition parties’ boycott of the inauguration of the new Parliament building.
With the BJP top brass driving the outreach to new partners, their numbers can see a significant jump, a party leader said.
Though there has been speculation about the return of the Akali Dal and the Telugu Desam Party to the BJP-led front, both sides have refused to confirm any such development.
(With inputs from agencies)