In yet another broadside against the BJP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, opposition leaders are all set to meet at a mega rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Wednesday and seek to corner the Narendra Modi government on various issues. This is the second major rally of the proposed anti-BJP Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) after TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee organised a mass rally in Kolkata on January 19.
The Jantar Mantar rally is being organised by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is critical of the BJP and its leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its chief Amit Shah.
AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai told PTI that Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar would attend the rally.
Leaders from the Samajwadi Party (SP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and other parties would address the mega rally, he said.
Asked whether Congress president Rahul Gandhi would also attend the rally, Rai said an invite was sent to him, adding that the AAP had invited all the opposition leaders who had gathered at the mega rally in Kolkata last month.
Sources said with months to go for the general election, the rally would serve to bring the opposition leaders together in firming up a Mahagathbandhan to challenge the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners.
There were talks of an alliance between the AAP and the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in the national capital, but the local leadership of the latter is believed to be against it.
The AAP and the Congress have been bitter rivals in Delhi and Punjab.
