Bengaluru sets the stage for conclave of Opposition party leaders

Bengaluru to host Opposition leaders for 2nd time in 2 months to plan joint fight against BJP in LS polls. 23 parties to attend, incl. Congress, AAP, RLD.

Bengaluru is set to hog the political limelight yet again with the upcoming meeting of Opposition parties looking to draw up plans for a joint fight against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. This is the second time in the past two months that Bengaluru will host a number of political leaders since several of them gathered for the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The meeting in Bengaluru follows the first such gathering in Patna last month to forge an anti-BJP political front. While this meeting was scheduled to be held at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, it was moved to Bengaluru due to the weather condition in the hill State.

This time around, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi will participate as well. After Congress announced its support for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the issue of the Centre’s ordinance, AAP will also be attending the meeting. Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayanth Choudhary, who had skipped the Patna meeting for personal reasons, will also be there.

In 2018, many regional parties displayed a similar show of strength when the short-lived (14 months) Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress coalition headed by former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was sworn in. The optics was to send out a signal of unity ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, JD(S) — which received a drubbing in the recent Assembly elections at the hands of Congress — has not been invited to the meeting, party sources said.

While leaders representing 23 parties are expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting, Ms. Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are scheduled to arrive on Monday. The Congress general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala and media head Jairam Ramesh are already here for preparatory meetings, party sources said. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is hosting a dinner for the arriving leaders on Monday night.

Party sources said that more meetings are likely to be held before arriving at a consensus on seat sharing, probable common programme and strategy to highlight the failure of BJP government at the Centre.

Bengaluru is not new to hosting nationally relevant political platforms as even in the past the city had been a fulcrum of political activities.