Sharad Pawar calls Opposition meet amid talks of anti-BJP alliance for 2024 polls

NEW DELHI: In a major initiative, NCP president Sharad Pawar will, from Tuesday, kick-start opposition unity efforts ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a top party official announced on Monday.

NCP sational spokesperson and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said that in the first round, Pawar will meet leaders of a few political major parties, media persons, lawyers, social ativists, retired judges and bureaucrats, analysts, and other prominent experts from different fields at his New Delhi home on Tuesday morning.

The political leaders would include Yashwant Sinha of the Trinamool Congress, Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party, Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, D. Raja of the CPI, former JD-U leader Pawan Verma, and others.

Besides, he will also meet prominent personalities like Justice AP Singh (retd), Javed Akhtar, K.T.S. Tulsi, Karan Thapar, Ashutosh, A. Majeed Memon, Vandana Chavan,  SY Qureshi, KC Singh, Sanjay Jha, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Colin Gonsalves, Ghanshyam Tiwari, and Pritish Nandy.

However, the NCP has not indicated whether its allies in Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi government -- Shiv Sena and Congress, which are currently in a friction mode -- would attend Tuesday's Opposition parties gathering or not.

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"They (Pawar and the leaders) will discuss the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the current political situation in the country. After this, the leaders would decide on how to bring the other important opposition political parties together," Malik said.

“The country is going through a very difficult phase. The economy has tanked and the BJP government at the Centre failed to tackle it along with the pandemic situation. There is anger against the Modi government. All these issues will be discussed in this meeting and the future strategy to fight against the BJP unitedly will be on the table,” Malik said.

"Today, political strategist Prashant Kishor called on Pawar at his residence and briefed him about the prevailing national political scenario. They had met in Mumbai last week and had a second meeting in New Delhi today," he added.

Tuesday's Opposition parties joint meeting initiative starts months after Pawar had promised earlier this year to unite all opposition parties and present a formidable front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the next parliamentary elections.

Pawar was planning to campaign for Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal elections earlier this year but had to cancel his plans after he had to undergo some urgent medical procedures.