DNA had reported a fortnight ago that over 400 activists, professionals, academics and politicians have engaged in intensive deliberations on critical areas of collaboration.
The Left parties are unlikely to attend the key meeting of Opposition parties on Wednesday. The meeting, which is to be held a fortnight after the Opposition rally in Delhi's Jantar Mantar, will see discussion on the drafting of a common minimum programme (CMP) for a pre-poll alliance.
Left parties, and especially Sitaram Yechury, general secretary, of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), have expressed a different opinion on the CMP drafting exercise. Yechury has reportedly expressed unwillingness to commit to a CMP before the elections and rather wants it to be drafted post-elections. DNA had reported a fortnight ago that over 400 activists, professionals, academics and politicians have engaged in intensive deliberations on critical areas of collaboration.
Higher education, farmer income and electronic voting machines are some of the common areas identified and a debt relief commission has been mooted.
The possibility of absence of Left parties from Wednesday's meeting once again indicate fault lines in the Opposition camp over CMP as well as pre-poll alliance. The Left parties have not voiced their support for a national pre-poll alliance yet as their state units are pitched against Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, a key move of the opposition alliance, and Congress in Kerala.
The meeting on Wednesday will be convened in the backdrop of a crucial meeting that happened at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's residence on the evening of February 13. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, National Conference chief Dr. Farooq Abdullah and others were in attendance in the meeting.
It was announced after the meeting that opposition parties would form a pre-poll alliance and draft a CMP.
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