INDIA bloc to hold meeting in third week of Dec: Cong

The Congress on Tuesday announced that the meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders will be held in the third week of December.

The grand old party, however, said a coordination meeting of the floor leaders of the India (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc will be held at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here on Wednesday.

In a post on X, CWC member and coordinator of the Congress president’s office Gurdeep Singh Sappal said: “A coordination meeting of Parliamentary Party leaders of INDIA Alliance will be at 6 pm on December 6th, 2023 at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.”

Sappal added, “Thereafter, a meeting of party presidents/heads of the INDIA Alliance will be scheduled in the third week of December at a date convenient to all.”

The development comes in the wake of top INDIA bloc leaders, including Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s from the Opposition, reportedly conveying that they won’t be able to join the meeting on December 6.

Notably, West Bengal Chief Minister and chairperson of Trinamul Congress (TMC) Mamata Banerjee on Monday said, “I was not informed about the December 6 meeting so I gave go-ahead to a programme in North Bengal on that day. Had I received prior information, I wouldn’t have scheduled this programme.”

“We would have definitely gone, but we have no information (about the meeting),” she said.

The reported refusal of the top opposition leaders to attend the December 6 meeting came in the wake of drubbing of the Congress in the Assembly polls in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and  Chhattisgarh, and in the North-Eastern state of Mizoram.

The INDIA bloc is an umbrella alliance of the Opposition parties which was formed in July this year to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.