An aircraft carrying Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi made an emergency landing in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal on Tuesday evening. According to the Bhopal police, the flight was forced to make an emergency landing due to bad weather. "Aircraft carrying Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi makes emergency landing at Bhopal airport," said the police as reported by news agency PTI.
Both the leaders were returning to Delhi from Bengaluru after attending a two-day brainstorming session that saw 26 opposition parties take part in the meet.
The meeting concluded with the opposition parties forming a coalition and naming it the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. The name was proposed by the Congress party at the united Opposition parties meet in Bengaluru that aimed at taking on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Several parties, including the MDMK, KDMK, VCK, RSP, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), and Kerala Congress (Mani), are among those who joined the second opposition meeting. The first meeting was held in Patna on June 23 and chaired by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
At a press briefing after the meeting, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday challenged the NDA, asking if it can defeat I-N-D-I-A, the alliance of the Opposition. "Can you challenge India? Our campaign will be under the banner of I-N-D-I-A. Catch us if you can," she said. She also accused the BJP of "buying and selling" the country and its democracy. "They [BJP] don't let any independent agency do its work. If anyone supports or speaks in favour of the Opposition, the ED or CBI will be at their doorstep the very next day.