Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was one of the front runners to become the national convener, is not a part of the panel. In fact, some of the big names like Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Mallikarjun Kharge, Uddhav Thackeray are not part of the panel.
‘Together, as far as possible … ‘
The 28 parties participating in the third meeting of the opposition coalition in Mumbai have resolved to contest the next Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible. They also agreed to hold public rallies together in different parts of the country on issues of importance and concern. The INDIA parties will also coordinate their respective communications and media strategies and campaigns under the theme Judega Bharat, Jiteega India in different languages.
On the contentious issue of seat-sharing, the parties have decided to immediately initiate talks in different states and conclude it at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take.
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The 14 members included in the coordination panel are:
KC Venugopal (INC)
Sharad Pawar (NCP)
T R Baalu (DMK)
MK Stalin (DMK)
Sanjay Raut (SS)
Tejashwi Yadav (RJD)
Abhishek Banerjee (TMC)
Raghav Chadda (AAP)
Javed Ali Khan (SP)
Lallan Singh JD(U)
Hemant Soren (JMM)
D Raja (CPI)
Oman Abdullah (NC)
Mehbooba Mufti (PDP)
‘Paanch saal loot, elections ke samay choot’
Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray said the INDIA parties have resolved to end the atmosphere of fear in the country. Taking a dig at the Centre’s decision to lower the prices of LPG in view of the elections, Thackeray said the moto of this government is ‘Paanch saal loot, elections ke samay choot.’ He said the opposition bloc was getting stronger with every passing day and our unity was creating panic among our rivals.
‘Modi govt is stealing from poor to help big industrialists’
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the opposition coalition will fight issues of inflation and unemployment that has made the life of common man difficult. He accused PM Modi of favouring the rich and doing little for the poor. The Modi govt is stealing from poor to help big industrialists, he said. The Congress president reiterated the charge of misusing central agencies like the CBI and the ED. “The way these central agencies are being misused by the present government is unprecedented,” Kharge said.
‘Those in power today will be defeated’
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said those in power today will be defeated. He accused the Modi government of controlling the media. “Today, those in government do little work, but the media speaks and writes a lot about them. On the other hand, so much of good work is being done by those in the opposition, but that is not reported,” Nitish alleged.