Opposition leaders to meet in Tamil Nadu on August 30 for Karunanidhi memorial

NEW DELHI: A meeting of opposition parties that had been planned here for August 30 is likely to be held later in the capital as the leaders are set to congregate on that day in Chennai in memory of DMK patriarch M Kurananidhi who passed away on August 7.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, one of the key movers for opposition unity ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be among the opposition leaders who will be present in Chennai, it has been learnt. Congress leader Ahmed Patel spoke to Banerjee for postponement of the August 30 meeting in Delhi in view of the memorial service for Karunanidhi, sources said.

The 17-odd opposition parties have been coordinating on issues to take on the Modi government since the monsoon session of Parliament when Banerjee came over to the national Capital and met a string of opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, who switched sides after quitting the ruling NDA in March, is also likely to be in Chennai on Thursday.

The opposition parties plan to take a joint delegation to the EC on August 27 with a memorandum to insist on return to ballot papers for the 2019 polls, instead of using EVMs which have been in regular use since the 2004 LS polls.

With a slew of assembly elections coming up later this year, the parties are expected to get fully into the campaign mode after the festival season. While the battles in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh are essentially between BJP and Congress, with some other parties like Mayawati’s BSP being smaller players, it is still not clear whether leaders of other parties will campaign for these state polls as a joint show of strength.