Opposition leaders' meeting in Patna to formalise strategy for 2024 Lok Sabha polls

Patna (Bihar): The highly-anticipated Opposition meeting begins in Bihar's Patna and is hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with an aim to arrive at a consensus to forge a united Opposition front to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Opposition picked Patna as a venue for its meeting as it represents the 1974 call of total revolution by Jayaprakash Narayan that toppled Indira Gandhi's majority government.

Ahead of the meeting, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "There is a war of ideology going on in India. On one side is Congress party's 'Bharat Jodo' ideology and on the other RSS and BJP's 'Bharat Todo' ideology ...Congress party's DNA is in Bihar."

He said that the opposition parties have come together to defeat the BJP. "BJP is working to spread hate, violence and break the country. We are working to spread love and unite. Opposition parties have come here today and together we will defeat BJP," he added.

As leaders of several opposition parties arrived in Patna on Thursday, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary decided to skip the conclave due to a "pre-decided family programme".

Chaudhary, however, hoped the meeting would be an "important milestone in the path of opposition unity". This came after the Janata Dal (United), which is hosting the meet, said Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati was not invited to the event.

(ANI)