Opposition meeting on Dec 10

Opposition parties will meet here on December 10, a day before Parliament convenes for the Winter Session as well as counting of votes for the ongoing Assembly elections in five states.

The meeting is convened by the Congress and it comes after an earlier attempt to hold such a conclave on November 22 — which was to be hosted by TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu — was postponed owing to ongoing Assembly elections.

Sources said the Congress has extended its invitation to top leaders like DMK's M K Stalin to attend the December 10 meeting.

Some of the parties had earlier suggested that the meeting should be held after December 11, the day on which the results of the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will be announced.

However, with the Parliament session starting on December 11, the Congress insisted that the meeting must be held a day before to find a common ground on issues and strategies for the session to counter the government.

The Opposition is likely to corner the Narendra Modi government over a variety of issues, including the dissolution of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, agrarian distress, price rise and unemployment among others.

The TDP chief had earlier planned the meeting on November 22 but several parties had expressed reservations about holding it in the midst of the Assembly elections.

Naidu's recent initiative to cobble up Opposition unity with the Congress at the pole position was not received with much enthusiasm by some regional parties. A section wanted that the exercise should not be projected as Congress-centric.

The TDP chief's proposal on the date also did not cut much ice as several leaders did not want to concentrate on anything else. "Parties are fighting against each other. Some may not have a big reach in these states. But in the midst of elections, they do not want to be seen sharing a stage in Delhi," a senior leader had said recently.