The much-awaited meeting of the non-NDA Opposition parties will be held on June 23 in Patna. National president of the JDU Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh confirmed this on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters on Thursday, Singh said all like-minded Opposition parties have agreed to attend this meeting to chalk out a joint strategy to fight together against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
He said that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge , senior party leader Rahul Gandhi , West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Left leaders, D Raja, Sitaram Yechuri and Dipankar Bhattacharya, have all given their consent to attend the meet.
The meeting, which was scheduled to be held on June 12 last, was postponed following a request from the Congress and the DMK. Rahul Gandhi is currently in the US on a weeklong tour and will be available only after June 15, he said.
The decision to convene the meeting in Patna was finalised only after the meeting of CM Nitish Kumar with Mamta Banerjee in Kolkata recently. She had expressed her desire to CM Nitish to hold a meeting in Patna.
The whole idea to put all the like-minded non NDA partners under one roof is the brainchild of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Kumar has been spearheading the campaign to unite opposition parties to forge an alliance against the BJP led NDA for the 2024 LS polls.