Opposition leaders meet, vow to end BJP rule

As leaders of 21 parties came together on Monday to show a spirited and united face during the all-party meeting a day ahead of the Winter Session, two of the biggest political actors of the Alliance, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party remained absent. 

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, while speaking to reporters after the meeting, said that the coming together of the parties is a “process”. “This process is bringing everybody together and this proves that it is going to be carried out in an open, friendly, respectful manner. As I said, I said in the room that the voices in this room are the voices of opposition in this country and we respect every single one of them regardless of how big or how small they are, we respect each one of them. The goal of everybody is to defeat the BJP and protect India’s Constitution and our Institutions,” said Gandhi. 

Sources said that party leaders within the meeting noted the absence of both the parties, despite SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav stating on Sunday that he will attend the meet. In reply, Gandhi said that he will personally speak to both Akhilesh Singh Yadav and Mayawati to bring them into the fold. 

The leaders decided on a five-point agenda, where a broad consensus on five issues emerged. These include the Rafale deal, the malfunctioning of EVMs and the deletion of name of voters from lists, farmers’ distress, small businesses hit by the GST as well as the recent crises in government institutions like the CBI, ED and the RBI.

From the Congress UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party president Rahul Gandhi spoke. Sonia, who was the first to speak, spoke of the “decimation of the values at the core of the Indian democracy”. Rahul Gandhi touched upon a host of issues including Rafale and farmers’ crisis, and it was during his speech that the news of RBI governor Urjit Patel broke. Manmohan Singh also spoke on the state of the Indian economy  

Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu stressed on coordinated condemnations on issues by the larger coalition, and said that parties and leaders need to be more forceful in pointing out the inadequacies of the BJP government. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, for whom this was a first, said that like-minded parties should set aside their differences and come together. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee invited the parties for anti-BJP rally in Kolkata on January 19.       

NCP leader Praful Patel spoke at length of farmers’ distress and made a mention of the corporation polls in Maharashtra where the Congress-NCP combine won 14 seats.  

Apart from the Telugu Desam Party and the Aam Aadmi Party, the convening of the leaders saw one more new entrant: the Nagaland People’s Front, who was represented by Rajya Sabha MP KG Kenye. 

Apart from the Gandhis, from the Congress were Dr Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Ashok Gehlot. Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and Majeed Memon, and TDP’s Kambhampati Rammohan and YS Choudhary were present. 

Janata Dal Secular’s HD Devegowda and Danish Ali, CPIM’s Sitaram Yechury and TK Rangarajan, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, Loktantrik Janata Dal’s Sharad Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejaswi Yadav, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav and Manoj Jha, DMK’s MK Stalin, Kanimojhi and TR Balu (DMK) as well as Jhankjand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren were also present.  

Additionally, Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Ajit Singh, CPI’s  D Raja, Kerala Congress-M’s Jose K Mani, Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Jiten Ram Manjhi, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha’s Babu Lal Marandi, Indian Union Muslim League’s PK Kunhalikutti, All India United Democratic Front ‘s Badrudin Ajmal, Rashtriya Samta Party’s NK Premchandran and Sanjay Singh and Bhagwant Mann from AAP participated in the meeting.