INDIA Alliance Meet Pushed Back After 3 Top Leaders Say Can’t Attend

New Delhi:

A meeting of the INDIA opposition bloc to take place in Delhi tomorrow has been postponed, sources told NDTV Tuesday afternoon. The meeting – called by Congress boss Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday, as his party was being decimated in three state elections – will now likely be held in the third week of this month “at a date convenient to all”.

The postponement comes shortly after sources told NDTV that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party boss Akhilesh Yadav both plan to skip the meet. On Monday Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she too would not attend. All three are senior members of a bloc supposed to unite the opposition to take on the BJP in November’s state polls and next year’s Lok Sabha election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to bid for an unprecedented third consecutive term.

Sources also said Mr Kumar, Mr Yadav and Ms Banerjee aren’t the only senior INDIA leaders who backed out of Wednesday’s meeting. Reports indicated Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, had also said he would skip the meeting; in his case, the state is battling floods due to Cyclone Michaung.

READ | Cyclone Michaung Makes Landfall In Andhra Pradesh, 8 Dead In Chennai

Nevertheless, the raft of leaders RSVP-ing “no” to the Congress’ call underlined the growing chasm in the INDIA bloc as regional parties grumble (louder and louder) about the national party continuing to insist that it will fight elections on its own, or as the majority partner in each instance.

Both Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee have made that point this week, pointing out that the margin of the Congress’ defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan could have been smaller, or perhaps even turned into victories, had it agreed to share seats. This was a reference to a squabble between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party of sharing six seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier today, sources told NDTV that Nitish Kumar and Akhilesh Yadav would send representatives instead; the Janata Dal (United) leader was likely to send party President Rajiv Ranjan and senior figure Sanjay Jha, while Mr Yadav, a former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, was expected to send his uncle, and Rajya Sabha MP, Ramgopal Yadav.

READ | Akhilesh Yadav, Nitish Kumar To Skip INDIA Meet, May Send Representatives

Sources also suggested Mr Yadav saying he would skip the meet may have been a question of optics; he reportedly wanted a personal invitation from top Congress leaders.

Sources, however, further indicated that the other half of the Bihar government – the Rashtriya Janata Dal – would have been represented by its top leaders – party patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

On Monday, Ms Banerjee said she was “not aware” of the meeting and had prior commitments in northern Bengal on the day. “I am not aware about this (meeting). I have scheduled a seven-day programme in north Bengal… had I known, I would have surely gone for it…”

READ | “Not Aware”: Mamata Banerjee To Skip Next INDIA Bloc Meet

In her case, sources had said there might have been no representative from the Trinamool at all.

After the Bengal leader’s “not aware” comment, the Congress seemed to backtrack a little; party leader Jairam Ramesh called the December 6 event an “informal meet”. That phrase was used again this afternoon, with sources telling NDTV a “formal meeting” will be scheduled for December 18 or 19.

READ | Congress, Having Lost 3 States, Calls INDIA Meet On Wednesday: Sources

The Congress has received flak from allies in the build-up to last month’s Assembly polls, not just over the seat-sharing squabbles but also over its insistence that prep work for next year’s general election – the primary reason the INDIA bloc was formed – be put on hold till it was free to lead the planning.

The last INDIA meeting was in end-August in Mumbai and the next (likely this month) was to have been called by the Congress. Failure to do so had invited a jab from Nitish Kumar, who said he had been “… pushing them forward in (the) INDIA alliance but, of late, there has not been much progress… Congress seems to be more interested in the five assembly polls.”