Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar Might Send Representatives, Will Skip India Meeting: References

Former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and leader of the Samajwadi Party is Akhilesh Yadav (R) (File).

New Delhi: According to sources that spoke to NDTV this morning, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not attend Wednesday's INDIA bloc negotiation. The leader of the Janata Dal (United) and Mr. Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, are the second and third prominent figures to decline to attend the gathering that the Congress arranged, highlighting the widening divide within an alliance intended to bring the opposition together and crush Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP in the Lok Sabha election of the following year.

Update | Congress Postpones India Alliance Meeting Following Top Leaders' Refusal to Attend

According to sources, NDTV When Mallikarjun Kharge called Nitish Kumar to extend an invitation, he informed him of his decision. Senior leader Sanjay Jha and JDU President Rajiv Ranjan would represent Nitish Kumar in Delhi. On the other hand, sources suggested that the primary representatives of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the other half of the Bihar government, would probably be its leaders, Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar, and his father, Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Meanwhile, sources said that Akhilesh Yadav might send his uncle, Ramgopal Yadav. Mr. Yadav reportedly wants a personal invitation as well. He and the Congress have reportedly clashed numerous times in recent months, with Mr. Yadav criticising his ally over the breakdown of seat-sharing negotiations for the Madhya Pradesh election.

Mamata Banerjee, the fiery leader of the Trinamool Party and a tense ally with the Congress, announced on Monday that she would not be attending as well. She claimed to be "not aware" of the meeting and to have prior commitments in northern Bengal on that day. "I am not conscious of this meeting. I have a seven-day programme planned in north Bengal; if I had known, I would have taken it. However, I'm going on the north Bengal tour because we don't have any information," she declared.

Read | "Not Aware": Mamata Banerjee Will Not Attend The Upcoming India Bloc Meeting

According to sources, Ms. Banerjee's party may also skip the meeting. If this is the case, it will be interpreted as a sign of intense dissatisfaction within INDIA, which has been further heightened by the Congress's crushing losses in Sunday's assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Following three consecutive losses, the Bengali leader, who caused a stir by rejecting India's caste census resolution at its most recent meeting in Mumbai, appeared to criticise the Congress, saying, "We proposed a seat-sharing arrangement." "Divided votes caused them (the Congress) to lose," she informed the Assembly.

She did, however, refrain from making any further pointed remarks and instead stated that the bloc "will learn from the mistakes"

Mamata Banerjee's remarks appeared to support the views of other INDIA members, such as Akhilesh Yadav, who stated that in order to maximise their influence over voters, regional parties needed to take the lead in the opposition to the BJP wherever feasible. In the run-up to the Madhya Pradesh election, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress had a falling out over seat-sharing. Data collected following the election indicates that the Congress would have benefited more from a ground-level coalition than from going it alone.

After the Congress had taken early leads in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and was running neck and neck with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Kharge called for the meeting on Sunday afternoon.

Tragically, the party soon found itself significantly behind in all three. Eventually, the Hindi heartland states were taken over by the BJP. In 2018, the Congress took up all three states.

The agenda item for tomorrow's INDIA bloc meeting is likely to be the formulation of the party's 2024 Lok Sabha election strategy, which is now progressively moving in the BJP's direction for a third consecutive term.

Source: NDTV