Within days of the Parliament's Monsoon Session ending, top Opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will converge in the national capital on a common platform on Thursday where they are expected to step up the anti-NDA rhetoric.
Leaders including CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and NCP's Tarique Anwar will also attend the fifth edition of 'Save Composite Culture' event hosted by veteran Opposition politician Sharad Yadav, exactly a year after the first meeting was held.
The event, envisaged as a show of Opposition unity, will give the Opposition leaders a platform to respond to Narendra Modi's last Independence Day speech in his first tenure as Prime Minister.
All Opposition parties will attend the function, which is being held days after the anti-NDA grouping was defeated in the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman elections on August 9.
Sources said the leaders are expected to display that their unity has not suffered despite non-NDA parties like BJD and TRS voting in favour of NDA nominee Harivansh, a JD(U) MP, and against joint Opposition candidate BK Hariprasad of the Congress.
“The Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman poll result is not a setback. It showed who stands where. It showed who is batting against the BJP,” a senior Opposition leader told DH.
Sources said the event will see Opposition going hammer and tongs at the NDA government for “failure in all sectors” and there will be a specific rebuttal to Modi's Red Fort speech on Wednesday.
Leaders are expected to raise Rafale case, rising communalism, fresh allegations against BJP president Amit Shah and his son Jay.
The 'Save Composite Culture' event was first held in Delhi last year with Yadav taking the lead after JD(U) left the Opposition fold to hold hands with the BJP in Bihar.
It was also held in Indore, Jaipur and Mumbai later.
The meeting is held to "Save Constitution of India, to defeat communalism and to maintain communal harmony in the country. Rahul Gandhi and leaders of almost all Opposition parties will be attending," Yadav said on Sunday.
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