The leaders of the parties involved in the opposition alliance are raising this question and demanding that there should be a meeting of the alliance’s constituent parties. There has been no meeting of the opposition alliance ‘India’ after the results of the Lok Sabha elections, whereas since its formation last year, at least four meetings have been held. Alliance leaders met from Patna to Bengaluru, Mumbai and then Delhi. Meetings were being held continuously for better coordination. A coordination committee was also formed in the Mumbai meeting, which had 14 members. Once this coordination committee also met at Sharad Pawar’s residence in Delhi. But after that it did not meet again. After that, an online meeting of the opposition alliance was held, in which there was so much bad blood that Nitish Kumar left.
However, last month in August, a meeting of the BJP-led NDA was held. After the Lok Sabha elections, a meeting of all the parties was held to choose the leader of the NDA and even after that, a meeting of NDA MPs was held during the Parliament session. After the monsoon session ended, an NDA meeting was held at the house of BJP national president JP Nadda on August 16, in which leaders of all the parties of the alliance participated. It is being told that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested that a meeting should be held for better coordination between the parties of the NDA. That is when it was said that a committee would be formed like the NDA coordination committee during the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and its meeting would be held every month. The committee was not formed but now it has to be seen whether the NDA meeting takes place this month or not.
However, since the NDA meeting, the parties of the opposition alliance have also been saying that a meeting of ‘India’ should be held. This alliance performed very well in the Lok Sabha elections. It got 204 seats. Mamata Banerjee did not contest with this alliance. Her party has got 29 seats. So, it is not clear yet whether Mamata Banerjee is officially a part of this alliance or not. There is a similar relationship with the Aam Aadmi Party, but Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is somehow maintaining coordination. On his initiative, there was coordination between the two parties for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana. Both the parties fought separately in Punjab. Now in the state elections also, on Rahul’s initiative, there is coordination between the two parties in Haryana.
However, last year there was a lot of controversy in the opposition alliance about who would be its president and convenor. Nitish Kumar’s name was discussed for many days. After that, news came from Congress sources that Mallikarjun Kharge would be its president. But that too was not announced. It is not known whether the coordination committee exists or not. That is why many parties believe that there should be a meeting of the constituent parties of the opposition alliance and the president, convenor etc. should be selected. The parties want that this unity should be visible not only in the Parliament, but also outside the Parliament and in the state elections.