Top leaders of over a dozen Opposition parties met here on Monday and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the opposition unity and defeat the BJP in the 2022 UP assembly polls and the 2024 general elections, according to sources.

The leaders came together at a dinner hosted by senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal where almost all the members of the ‘Group of 23’ who had written to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi seeking an organizational overhaul were also present. “Such meetings should be organized more frequently to ensure that the unity is strengthened further. We have to defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh first in 2022 and then in general elections of 2024,” said an opposition leader, who was present during the meet.

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Among the political heavyweights present were RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, and Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, Omar Abdullah of National Conference, and Congress leader P Chidambaram.

Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena, Sanjay Singh of AAP, TMC leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, BJD leaders Pinaki Mishra and Amar Patnaik, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and TK Elangovan, RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary, and leaders of TRS and TDS also attended the dinner meeting.

The ‘Group of 23’ leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.

Incidentally, this was the first such engagement of Congress leaders of the ‘Group of 23’ with top opposition leaders. The sources said after the initial remarks by Sibal, all leaders said they had to get together to defeat the BJP first in UP in 2022 and then in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. “We must fight the BJP together and remain united,” a leader was quoted as saying at the meeting.

Another leader alleged that the BJP “has destroyed democracy and the democratic institutions that keep a check on the government”.
“We must defeat BJP and restore democracy in the country,” he said.

They also claimed the BJP has done “nothing” for the oppressed and poor sections of society, especially during the pandemic and after, and the ruling party needed to be “exposed”, according to the sources.

The opposition parties have been ratcheting up pressure on the government on a slew of issues like the Pegasus snooping controversy, farm laws, and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

(With PTI inputs)