Next meeting of Opposition parties to be held in Bengaluru on July 13, 14

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday announced that the next Opposition meeting will be held in Bengaluru on July 13. The first meeting was recently conducted in Patna, Bihar, to develop a single strategy to challenge the BJP in the next general election. The next summit was supposed to take place in Shimla, but Pawar has now revealed that it would take place in Bengaluru. A plan of action is expected to be formulated at the second meeting to be chaired by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stated on June 23 during the first opposition meeting in Patna, said that the next meeting to plan a unified front against the BJP would be convened in Shimla. 

The meeting was convened by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) Chief Nitish Kumar and over 32 leaders of more than a dozen political parties attended the meeting. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge emphasised the significance of setting a shared agenda and making choices about the next steps. While Kumar had termed the meeting "positive", it also showed fissures in the opposition unity as the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party couldn't come to an agreement on the Centre's ordinance. The BJP reacted strongly to the Opposition meeting, calling it a "multi-headed selfish alliance" and compared it with wolves hunting in packs.