NEW DELHI: INDIA bloc on Monday reached a consensus on five points after opposition leaders huddled at Delhi’s Constitution Club — their first formal meeting since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.At a press conference, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that 25 parties attended the meeting and shared their views.”The INDIA alliance meeting has concluded, with 25 parties in attendance. Everyone shared their views, and subsequently, we reached a consensus on five points. We have agreed today; we will fight for these issues, work on them, and move forward,” Kharge said.”It was agreed to send a letter to the Chief Justice of India on SIR, vote loot and election theft. The letter is to be delivered to the Chief Justice of India very soon. Second, it was unanimously agreed to demand the immediate resignation of the Education Minister because he presided over the betrayal of lakhs of youth who appeared for the NEET and CBSE examinations. The Union government should immediately call an all-party meeting to discuss the precarious current economic situation, unemployment, price rise, farmers’ issues and other people-centric issues. It was agreed that all the parties would meet every two months. The Parliament coordination will continue during the monsoon session with daily morning meetings in the office of the leader of the opposition,” he added.The opposition alliance meeting came against the backdrop of recent assembly polls in four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry.While non-BJP parties secured victories in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the results were seen as a setback for the opposition, with the BJP winning West Bengal and Assam and retaining power in Puducherry alongside its ally, the All India NR Congress.The meeting was reportedly convened at the request of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), which was defeated in West Bengal after 15 years in power and is now facing internal dissent.Even as the INDIA bloc meeting was in progress, the Trinamool Congress suffered another setback, with veteran Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray resigning from both the party and the Upper House, dealing a fresh blow to the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit amid growing signs that turbulence in its legislative wing may now be spilling over into its parliamentary ranks.Ray’s resignation comes just days after an unprecedented revolt within the TMC legislature party in West Bengal. As many as 58 party MLAs defied the leadership and backed Ritabrata Banerjee for the post of Leader of the Opposition, rejecting the party’s official nominee, Shovandeb Chattopadhyay.The TMC has had an on-and-off relationship with the INDIA bloc and contested both the Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections in West Bengal on its own.Earlier in the day, Kharge welcomed the leaders and outlined the agenda in his opening remarks. The discussion included the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the alleged misuse of investigative agencies by the BJP-led Centre, perceived discrimination against non-BJP state governments, inflation, privatisation, unemployment, paper leaks, and what the opposition described as the Centre’s “weak” foreign policy, among other issues.The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had already announced that it would boycott the meeting, citing the Congress’ “betrayal”. The decision came after the Tamil Nadu elections, in which the DMK lost power after a single term, following which the Congress aligned with newcomer Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to form the government in the state.
