BENGALURU: Karnataka Congress, which is upbeat following its thumping victory in the recent assembly polls and successful implementation of three of its five big poll promises, will play host to the opposition parties' second big conference on Monday and Tuesday.
It is leaving no stone unturned to make this politically significant event a grand success.
Twenty-four parties are likely to attend the conclave to zero in on a strategy to take on the BJP in next year's Lok Sabha polls. About 16 parties first met on June 23 in Patna.
The meeting is more significant for the Congress because its role may be crucial in sewing up the anti-BJP alliance to fight the general elections. Sonia Gandhi will also host a dinner for opposition leaders on the eve of the meeting, which will be attended by Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and other senior functionaries.
Congress functionaries said West Bengal and Delhi CMs Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal have almost confirmed their participation in the second meeting. In the face of continuous attacks from opposition parties over the West Bengal panchayat poll violence, Mamata initially cited her hand injury as a reason for not attending the meeting. However, Sonia Gandhi invited the TMC chief personally and convinced her to be a part of it in Bengaluru, they added.
Though the Aam Aadmi Party had attended the Patna meet, which was held at the instance of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, it chose to skip the press conference as Congress hadn't extended support for the BJP government's ordinance nullifying the Supreme Court's order to give the Delhi government greater control over bureaucracy in the state. However, party insiders said Nitish Kumar is now believed to have convinced his Delhi counterpart to attend the event with some assurance.
Opposition parties' unity suffered a major setback after the Patna meet following the recent split in Maharashtra veteran Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and his nephew Ajit Pawar's switch to the Eknath Shinde-BJP coalition in the state.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Saleem Ahmed said several leaders, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayanat Choudhary have confirmed their participation in Bengaluru.
The meeting might see the formation of three working groups that will draft a common agenda for opposition parties with the Lok Sabha polls in mind. The meeting is also likely to decide a common name for the opposition alliance and discuss seat-sharing arrangements among themselves.
"For Congress, this meeting is important for multiple reasons. First, it is a show of strength in a state where they have just come to power. Second, the efforts of the leadership to galvanise anti-BJP forces will be on test. Third, it provides an opportunity to the Congress to build a policy and programme-oriented alternative to the BJP," said Sandeep Shastri, political analyst.
