INDIA’s Mumbai meeting after Aug 15, panels likely

The next meeting of the opposition alliance INDIA is likely to be held after August 15 in Mumbai, a leader of the bloc said Friday.

An 11-member coordination committee is likely to be finalised in the Mumbai meeting, the third such after the Patna and Bengaluru meets.

The alliance leaders are also planning to set up four-five other committees including the ones for campaign management, communication, and overseeing rallies.

The meeting will be crucial since the 26-party pact — Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance — is likely to discuss among its partners seat-sharing, poll preparations, and campaign management.

Work is also underway to decide on the main secretariat for the alliance in Delhi.

A number of meetings are being planned in different parts of the country before the main election campaign begins for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

All the same, the pact is not without its weak points, with tension likely to flare up over seat-sharing among partners from Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal.

The alliance partners will be hard pressed to ease friction between the Congress and the Left in Kerala, the Left and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, and the AAP and the Congress in Punjab and Delhi.

Samajwadi Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and PDP and National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir are not without their own differences.

The 26 opposition parties which are part of the opposition alliance are – the Congress, TMC, DMK, AAP, JD(U), RJD, JMM, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), SP, NC, PDP, CPI(M), CPI, RLD, MDMK, Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi (KMDK), VCK, RSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), Kerala Congress (Mani), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).