A plan for holding joint rallies and campaigns in the coming months featuring the leaders of the INDIA group of opposition parties is a part of the agenda of the anti-BJP bloc as it gets ready to hold a two-day meeting in Mumbai starting Thursday.
As the parties constituting the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance take forward their discussions in the western metropolis, their third meeting, on how to mount a joint offensive against the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, according to a senior leader of the alliance, it is expected that a major takeaway from the conference would be a plan to hold joint rallies and campaigns.
This, according to the leader, will help in establishing the alliance, which has in Mumbai grown to become a 28-party grouping, as a united force and also convey to the people what the coalition stands for. In the last meeting in Bengaluru, where the name of the alliance was finalised, 26 parties had taken part in the discussions.
It is also expected that the parties will finalise the names for an 11-member coordination committee, which will have members from the various parties in the alliance. A decision to form a coordination committee was taken at the Bengaluru meeting.
Also on the agenda is finalising the name of the alliance's convenor, which is proving to be a tricky issue. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was seen as a leader who fit the bill considering the efforts he put in to make sure that parties that did not see eye to eye sat together in the same room. He was the host of the first meeting of the opposition parties in Patna. However, Kumar has said he is not interested in taking up the role of INDIA convenor.
The Mumbai edition of INDIA discussions will kick off tomorrow evening with an informal meeting scheduled to be held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in suburban Mumbai from 6:30 pm. It will be followed by a dinner meet at the same venue hosted by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The delegates at the meeting will gather at 10:15 am on September 1 for a photo session to be followed by the unveiling of the INDIA logo and a formal meeting. The INDIA leaders will address a press conference at the end of the meeting, which is expected to happen around 3:30 pm on Friday.
