India Alliance Meeting Delayed as Three Key Leaders Declare Unavailability

The meeting of the opposition bloc in INDIA, which was scheduled to take place in Delhi tomorrow, has been postponed, according to sources. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had called for the meeting after his party suffered heavy losses in three state elections. The meeting is now expected to be held in the third week of this month, at a date that is convenient for all the members.

This postponement comes after reports that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav will not be attending the meeting. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also announced that she will not be present. All three of them are key members of the opposition bloc, which aims to challenge the BJP in the upcoming state elections in November and the Lok Sabha election next year, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term.

Sources reveal that Kumar, Yadav, and Banerjee are not the only senior INDIA leaders who have backed out of the meeting. This highlights the growing division within the bloc as regional parties express their dissatisfaction with the Congress’ decision to contest elections mostly on its own. Both Yadav and Banerjee have emphasized this point, stating that the party’s defeats could have been minimized if it had agreed to share seats with its allies.

Earlier today, it was reported that Kumar and Yadav would be sending representatives to the meeting. Kumar was expected to send party President Rajiv Ranjan and senior figure Sanjay Jha, while Yadav was likely to be represented by his uncle and Rajya Sabha MP, Ramgopal Yadav.

However, sources indicate that the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the other half of the Bihar government, will be represented by its top leaders, party patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son Tejashwi Yadav, who serves as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

The new date for the postponed meeting is yet to be announced.