The leaders of the Opposition alliance met at Congress national president and Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge's residence on Wednesday evening to discuss issues of the Parliament and decide the date for next meeting of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. The grand meeting of the opposition alliance was earlier set to take place on Wednesday but was later postponed.
"A meeting of floor leaders of INDIA alliance from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was held today. The routine meeting in the Parliament couldn't be held in the morning today, hence it was held at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence," said Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain.
"The meeting was chaired by Kharge and Rahul Gandhi and several issues, including the upcoming Bills, were discussed," says Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain after the conclusion of INDIA alliance meeting," he added.
Earlier, Congress announced the next meeting of the alliance for December 6, after three earlier meetings that were hosted in Patna, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.
The meeting was, however, postponed to a later date after several top leaders of the alliance including Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin conveyed that they would skip the meeting.
Upset with Congress over the issue of seat-sharing in Madhya Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav was said to have prior commitments on December 6 while Mamata Banerjee said she was not aware of the meeting dates and had other plans.
Nitish Kumar was also said to not attend the meeting later clarifying that he was sick.
As for Stalin, Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT) said, "There's a flood in Chennai, so to expect Stalin to leave people of Tamil Nadu and come for the meeting is not right."
Amidst all the discord, TMC has underscored the importance of expeditious seat-sharing talks, establishing a collective narrative and finalising the manifesto to step up its ante against the saffron camp for the upcoming general elections.