Opposition Parties to Meet in Shimla Again, to Chart Roadmap for Anti-BJP Front in 2024 Polls

In a significant development, opposition parties have announced their plan to gather in Shimla from July 10 to July 12 with the objective of formulating a roadmap for an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"We will meet again in July in Shimla to prepare an agenda on how to move ahead together while working in our respective states to fight the BJP in 2024," Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at a joint press conference after Opposition's meeting.

The primary objective of the Shimla meeting will be to formulate a comprehensive agenda and devise strategies on how to proceed collectively, while also focusing on individual state-level efforts to combat the BJP in the 2024 elections.

Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, who hosted the meeting in Patna, described it as a positive and productive gathering. He said that the decision to contest the elections as a united front had been reached and hinted at the likelihood of another meeting in the near future.

"It was a good meeting where it has been decided to fight the elections together. Another meeting will be held soon," Kumar said at the press conference.

The meeting was hosted by Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD. As the host, Kumar presided over the meeting flanked on either side by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (TMC), her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab's Bhagwant Mann (AAP), Tamil Nadu's M K Stalin (DMK), Jharkhand's Hemant Soren (JMM), Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, Maharashtra's former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), and NCP president Sharad Pawar are among the leaders attending the first high-level Opposition meeting.