Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge invites Opposition leaders for Bengaluru meet; smaller parties also added

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has started sending out formal invitations to the leaders of like-minded Opposition parties for their scheduled July 17-18 Bengaluru meeting, the second gathering after the Patna meet in pursuance of the larger anti-BJP unity in the Lok Sabha polls. Invites from Kharge signals the Congress playing the host's role at the meeting in the Capital of the party-ruled Karnataka, after lending that honours to wannabe 'Opposition convenor' Nitish Kumar at Patna. On Monday, Karnataka PCC chief DK Shivakumar had said that Sonia Gandhi too might attend the Bengaluru meeting.

While all the leaders of about 17 parties, who attended the Patna meet have been invited to the Bengaluru conference, some smaller anti-BJP parties of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, including Kerala Congress' factions, Forward Block, VCK and MDMK, have been added this time to make the list 20-plus. This window dressing, incidentally, coincides with BJP's efforts to rope in more parties into NDA.

While most leaders who turned up at Patna are expected, yet, due to the bitterness that the West Bengal panchayat polls have created among Trinamool, Congress and CPI-M, there is some suspense on whether Mamata Banerjee will personally attend or depute someone else for the Bengaluru meeting. The same is the case with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal given his boycott of the post-Patna meeting joint press conference due to Congress' refusal to commit itself against the contentious Delhi ordinance. However, many Congress leaders are against inviting BRS, which had boycotted the Patna meeting.


"The (Patna Opposition) meeting was a great success as we were able to discuss various important issues that threaten our democratic polity and came to a unanimous agreement on unitedly fighting the next general elections. I believe that it is important to continue these discussions and build on the momentum that we have created. We need to work together to find solutions to the challenges that our country is facing," Kharge wrote in the invite. The Bengaluru meeting could try to touch upon common issues to be collectively projected by these parties.