Oppn to meet in Capital next week to chart LS poll strategy

NEW DELHI: Less than a fortnight after its last meeting, the antibharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposition bloc will again hold talks in New Delhi on February 26 to discuss the Lok Sabha poll strategy, in a calculated move to emphasize its unity and mark its presence in the national capital.

Senior Opposition leaders indicated that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, socialist leader Sharad Yadav and representatives from the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) are expected at the meeting.

On February 13, all these leaders came together in a major show of unity in Delhi and also participated in a rally, hosted by Kejriwal. The meetings assume importance as many of the parties would be fighting against each other in the states during the Lok Sabha poll. “A grand alliance ahead of the polls is not an idea we would like to pursue. We are keeping in touch with each other and meeting regularly to keep the possibilities of a post-poll alliance alive,” a senior opposition leader said on condition of anonymity.

Another opposition leader added that earlier, the plan had been to meet in Guwahati but the venue was shifted keeping in mind the fast-changing political scenario in Delhi. A group of Congress and Telugu Desam Party leaders are in charge of organizing the event in Delhi.