Winning 2024 polls ultimate goal, time to rise above compulsions: Sonia Gandhi to Oppn leaders

Banerjee also pitched for creating a core group of leaders to work out a common agenda to take on the BJP

Holding a meeting with top leaders of 19 Opposition parties including, four Chief Ministers from non-Congress parties Mamata Banerjee, Uddhav Thackeray and M K Stalin and Hemant Soren, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday called for the coming together of the entire spectrum of the Opposition for the "larger political battle" telling them in no uncertain terms that the "ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections".

"The ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution," she said in her opening remarks.

While making the unity pitch, Gandhi also acknowledged the difficulties, which was very much evident with BSP, a major regional party from poll bound Uttar Pradesh skipping the meeting and Delhi's ruling party AAP not having been invited. Akhilesh Yadav's SP was a signatory to the letter by 20 parties but did not attend the meeting,

"This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them," Gandhi said at the meeting which was also attended by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, NC's Farooq Abdullah, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti and others.

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Gandhi assured that "Congress will not be found wanting" in efforts in this direction as she noted that the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence is indeed the most appropriate occasion for us to reaffirm our individual and collective resolve.

Mamata Banerjee, who is emerging as a key personality to bring together Opposition forces after her Hat-trick poll victory in West Bengal, is learnt to have said, "forget who is the leader, let us keep our personal interests aside. People will lead." She is learnt to have pitched in for bringing "every opposition party in the fight against BJP." She was of the view that even parties, which are not allied with Congress, must be invited for such meetings. Her indication was apparently towards parties like BJD, TRS and YSR Congress.

Banerjee also pitched for creating a core group of leaders from Opposition parties to work out a common agenda and charter of programmes to take on the BJP.

Sharad Pawar lauded the "much needed meeting" in view of the present circumstances which he said appeared "very gloomy".

" Those who believe in democracy and secularism, those who like to work together for saving the democratic principles and ethos of the country must come together," he said, underlining the need to take up a "time bound action plan collectively".

In a joint statement issued later, the parties announced to organise protest actions including dharnas, protest demonstrations, hartals all over the country from September 20 to September 30, the contours of which will be decided at state level by all the parties. "We the leaders of twenty Opposition parties, all upon the people of India to rise to the occasion to defend our secular, democratic Republican order with all our might," the statement said.

The Opposition leaders made 11 demands in the joint statement including holding "immediate Supreme Court monitored judicial enquiry into the use of Pegasus Spyware for surveillance of people.

"The procuring of the Pegasus Military Spyware for surveillance of people by the GoI is extremely alarming. The government refuses to answer one straight question - Has it or any of its agencies purchased the Spyware. The government must answer and come clean. Such surveillance is not only a gross violation of people's fundamental rights to privacy but is an attack on Indian democracy and democratic institutions," the statement said.

Other demands were repeal of the three contentious farm laws passed by the government last year compulsory guarantee of MSP to farmers, implement free cash transfer of Rs 7500 per month to family outside the income tax bracket, withdraw petrol, diesel, LPG price hike and reverse the "unbridled privatisation" of the public sector, which it called the "loot of national assets".

At the meeting, which was attended also by leaders from RJD, AIUDF, VCK, Loktantrik Janata Dal, JDS, RLD, RSP, Kerala Congress Mani, IUML, Gandhi noted how the Monsoon session was marked by the "determined unity that all Opposition parties demonstrated for over twenty days" in both the houses and expressed confidence that this unity will be sustained in future sessions of Parliament as well.

"But the larger political battle has to be fought outside it," she stressed. The joint statement as well Gandhi herself put the blame on the government for the total washout of the Monsoon session and took note of how "MPs including women MPs, were injured by Marshals deployed to disrupt Opposition protests."

Gandhi also credited the Opposition parties for the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill to restore the long-standing rights of states to identify and notify OBCs.

Gandhi's meeting with Opposition leaders came 11 days after Congress leader Kapil Sibal had held a similar meeting with Opposition leaders over dinner, which was interpreted as the dissenting group in Congress asserting itself.

At the virtual meeting, Gandhi recalled that the Opposition parties had earlier written a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12 on the vaccination strategy to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, on the repeal of the three anti-farmer laws and on the free distribution of food-grains to the needy. They also issued two more public statements jointly on May May 23 on the Covid-19 pandemic and on May May 2 on the issue of the repeal of the three anti-farmer laws.